Simone and Sara's Top 5 of 2025

 Hello Ai fans!

Today kicks of our Top posts of 2025.

Each of our Designer Team members chooses their favorite projects for the year.

We're beginning with our two FABULOUS Guest Designers.



First up we have Simone.
Her style runs from soft to bold,
from stunning to just plain cute and fun!

Please enjoy her choices.
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Hello my crafty friends!

This year truly flew by! A big heartfelt thank-you to Renee Matarese for inviting me on as a guest designer, and to the entire Krebs family for building such a creative, welcoming, and inspiring brand. I loved every moment of this experience. Narrowing down my five favorite cards of 2025 was definitely a challenge, but I’m excited to share the ones that made the list!

Thank you again!

Simone Carr

Next up we have Sara Furr.

She also has a varied style, which is wonderful!

She ranges from soft, shabby chic pastels, to Faith based cards, to bolder funny cards,
 especially FARM animals!
She doesn't go by The Crafty Farm Chic for no reason!



Dear Ai friends, I was asked to pick my top 5 favorite creations from this year, and I can't begin to tell you how hard this was for me! I have really enjoyed exploring new techniques and trying my hand at watercolor. I can't thank Art Impressions enough for giving me this opportunity to design for them! I absolutely love the versatility of their stamps. I am so excited to share even more with you this coming new year! Love, The Crafty Farm Chick

We love every one of these choices!

Stay tuned in 2026 for something new from Sara.

We can't wait to see what grand new creations 2026 brings
from our FABULOUS Guest Designers!

A Storybook Christmas by Janet

Today's project is a fun storybook ornament made with the 6121-Storybook Box Template. I've chosen the 9117-A Cozy Christmas companion set for the inside of the box. This is a charming set of images featuring a mommy bunny and her sweet baby bunny. They are sitting in their cozy living room with a fire, stockings, and gifts ready for Christmas day. 

To make the box, I cut the main portion from a design made from a pattern included in the 5964-Winter Woodland Cover Paper Pack. The vignette is created by cutting three inserts with an oval cut in the middle. There are three images in the stamp set that perfectly fit in the ovals. These are then stacked on top of the fireplace scene which is glued to the back of the box. The inserts are raised with foam tape so that when each is stacked on top of each other, great dimension is achieved.

The cover is made with one of the dies in the box template. To decorate the top of the box, I added a tag from an included die with a sentiment from 5566-Christmas Sentiments Set. I added a few gold stars and blue gems to make it pop. 

The final touches are the the attached tab which allows it to be strung with twine and a matching bow. The result is a charming box with a sweet scene inside. 

Thanks for joining me on the blog today. As always, find your favorite stamps, dies, papers, and accessories at the Ai Store!

Happy Crafting!

Janet - YouTube - Blog - Facebook - Instagram - Pinterest  

Holiday Cheer with a Tiny Deer! Card by Tasha

Hi Art Impressions friends. 

Tasha here sharing a holiday card created with the new 6104-Christmas Keepsake Set.

This sweet little reindeer stamp is just too cute and he looks adorable against the falling snow pattern paper. To build the scene, I added a white snowy ground and placed a gift and tree in the center of the card before framing everything with a metallic gold frame. The dark blue snowy sky and golden color pair beautifully with the pops of green and red.

To finish the design, I added a holiday plaid pattern paper with red and white card stock layers. A simple greeting completes the card and ties the whole look together. 

I hope you enjoyed today's card and are having a wonderful day!

Flurries Forecasted Challenge #417 Winners

 Hello Ai fans!

Well, the Art Impressions Challenges have come to and end for 2025.

It's bittersweet. We'll be sharing our Top 10 and Top 5 cards soon, and then we'll be taking a break to recharge for 2026! We can't wait to see what the new year brings.

Let me tell you, this was one of the most difficult challenges to judge.
Every entry was amazing!
Keep entering and you might be our next winner.

Congratulations to Debby VG who was our Top Spot winner in our Flurries Forecasted challenge!

She used:

6121 – Storybook Template
5429 – WC Silhouette Skaters
5853 – Christmas Magic Paper Pack
5010 – WC Tree Set 1
Bleed Proof White
Winsor Newton Ink 14ml – Gold Paint
5566 – Christmas Sentiments

We just LOVED Debby's vintage style shadowbox ornament.
Her little ice skating scene is adorable!

Congratulations Debby!

Please contact Leah at feedback@artimpressions

to claim your free stamp set.
Be sure to grab your Top Spot badge to share on

your social media as well.

Our Lucky Random Winner was #4 Sue V.

She used 
Retired Penguin Cheer Set and 5727 – Nested Oval Dies
on her sweet card.

Congratulations Sue!

Please contact Leah at feedback@artimpressions

to claim your free stamp set.
Be sure to grab your Lucky Random Winner badge to share on

your social media as well.

We hope you'll keep stopping by for the rest of the year to see our last few daily posts and our Design Team Top picks.

We'll see you back here on Jan. 1, 2026 for our first challenge of the new year.

Dancing Elf on a Gift Bag by Dori Mendiola

 Happy Thursday AI Friends!

Today I have a fun gift bag for you featuring the new #6119 - Elf Puppet set.  These puppet sets are so fun to make and so dang adorable!  I did my usual and stretched his legs to make him dance.

I made one of these boxes last year decorated with a gnome.  You can find the dimensions and instructions on how to make the box here.  

To stretch the Elf legs:  partial cut the bottom of the legs with the die and then hand cut an additional 1/2" or so for the top of the legs.  Punch a hole towards the top for a foam dot to fit.  Place the foam dot on the back of the shirt and slip the legs over the foam dot.  Die cut an extra shirt out of cardstock and adhere that to the other sticky side of the foam dot (the legs should be in between the shirts).  The legs will swing back and forth.

I die cut all of the other pattern pieces out of #5853 - Christmas Magic PP.  For the face of the Elf, I die cut it from a copic friendly paper and colored it with copic markers listed below.  I stamped the eyes from a set in my stash and I drew the nose and mouth.  

I finished decorating the box with bells and baker's twine and closed it with a red clothes pin.

That's it for me today.  Hope you find yourself creating some of these boxes and filling with little treats for Christmas.

Have a wonderful day and keep creating!

Copics used:  R20, E11, E01, E000

Black Zig pen for drawing face features.

Holiday Favor Jars! - by Lynn Dionne

Happy Wednesday Ai Fans!!!

Watch video tutorial here!

Let's have some fun creating these adorable little Holiday Favor Jars! Making party favors is absolutely one of my favorite things to do! We will be using the brand-new Ai Christmas Keepsake Set (6104) which includes an adorable snowman, reindeer, elf, and Christmas tree. There is also a little wooden basket/barrel that will fit any of these images and will coordinate perfectly with the other set in this series...Ai Fall Keepsake Set (6105). You can easily mix and match the little tin bucket and this wooden container to hold any of these little images!

To begin today's project, we will stamp, color and die cut all of the images. All of the coloring will be done using the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens in the following colors: Blender, Sugared Almond Pink, Deep Red, Peach Pink, Lt Pink, Geranium Red, Wine Red, Yellow, Bright Yellow, Orange, Flesh Colour, Mustard, Beige, Mid Brown, Haze Blue, Blue, Deep Blue, May Green, Green, Lt Gray, Gray.

I used some small Mason Jars for this project, and I will show you exactly which ones I used in today's video. We will first die cut the lacy borders using the Ai BJ Decorative Margin Dies (5972). These nice long (7") dies will fit perfectly around the jars. We will die cut the border once and then run it through the die cutting machine again to die cut the other side. There is a little trick to doing this which I will also show you in the video.

Now we will grab the Ai Winter Woodland Cover PP (5964) to add to this lacy border. Again, this paper is a little longer and will allow us to go around the jars nicely. We can now wrap these around the jars and add our little images to the front of each.

For the top of the lids, we will die cut a small circle using the Ai Winter Woodland PP 6"x6" (5963) in a pretty red. Then we will add a snowflake to each using the Ai Lg Snowflake Dies (5353). And to the center of each snowflake, we will add a few sparkly confetti sequins.

We will wrap the top of the jars with some red and white baker's twine and tie on a cute little tag using a few sentiments from this same stamp set!

Then we can add a few white paper shreds, that will look like snow and then add some festive holiday treats!

I'm also including another video from the Ai Woodland Series that was released over the weekend that you may have missed, and I will link it here for you:

Thank you so much for joining me today! Have a fun and crafty day!

Ai Christmas Keepsake Set (6104)

Ai Lg Snowflake Dies (5353)

Ai BJ Decorative Margin Dies (5972)

Ai Nested Circle Dies (5726)

Ai Journal Template Dies (5543)

Ai Winter Woodland PP 6x6 (5963)

Ai Winter Woodland Cover PP (5964)

Woodland Horse and Deer by Reneé Matarese

Hello Ai fans!

OH MY GOSH!

The new Woodland Scenes are just the prettiest.

Today I have two cards for you.

My first is the horse and ...

Is this not the SWEETEST little horse?!

The set is 6087 – Woodland Horse Scene

As soon as I saw this sweet scene, I instantly thought to grab

my 5408 – ShadowBox Window Die which I adorned with greenery from
5805 – Mini Journal Box Dies and shutters from 5770 – FB Farm Fence Die Set.
The cute little bow is from 5317 – MB Template Dies.

The little picket fences are from 5807 – Journal Fence Dies and I used Bleed Proof White

paint to add stripes to the bow.

What a sweet scene this would be to wake up to this Christmas.

For my second card I used 6089 – Woodland Reindeer Scene.

I used the same greenery and bow as on the horse card. My deer is mounted on

5804 – Decorative Belly Bands.

Both the inside and front sentiments are from 5566 – Christmas Sentiments
and the one on the inside is mounted on 6046 – Scalloped Oval Dies and

5727 – Nested Oval Dies and topped with a little bow from 5543 – Journal Template Die Set.

The paper is from 5963 – Winter Woodland Paper Pack

The tree and snow were made using Bleed Proof White. For the tree,

I dabbed it with Copic markers and then lightly went over it with the paint.

Copics:

R29, R37, B000, B34, B91, E30, E31,

E55, E57, C0, N2, YG93

Chocolate Twin Tone

A Christmas Story by Sharon Caudle

 Hello AI Fans! 

I have so loved all of the new releases by Art Impressions this year! One of my favorites is the new #6121 Storybook Template Die Set and the stamp sets that go along with it. I chose to show you #6118 A Christmas Story in my post today. I know some may not agree with me, but I do believe that Jesus is the reason for the season, and this Nativity Set makes such a beautiful ornament for either displaying on your tree or just to tuck on a shelf somewhere. The details that Bonnie added to this set is just truly spectacular!! I started by stamping all the images onto a Copic friendly paper and then coloring them with Copic markers. Once done, I die cut them out with the included dies and layered them up inside the amazing box. I think this is really super easy to create an amazing ornament that is perfect for gifting to friends and family. The Storybook Template also has a die so you can create a hanger for the ornament. You can make it as simple or as elaborate as you want. I went the simple route with this one as I wanted all of the focus to be on the amazing scene. I added a simple twine bow and some snowflakes from #5353 Large Snowflake Dies

A view from the top to show the dimension of the box. 

 Another view to show the layers on the inside. The depth is truly amazing. 

Thank you so much for stopping by for a visit today, and until next time - stay crafty!!

Two CHUBBY Snowmen! by Guest Designer Kimberly Wiener

Hello Ai fans!

I had a day here on the blog that I needed to fill in, and we found the perfect person
for the job!

Please welcome Guest Designer

 Kimberly Wiener!

We just KNOW that you're going to LOVE her wintry cards.

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Hello Art Impression Fans!  I’m thrilled to join you and be a guest.  My favorite cards to create are Winter & Christmas cards.  Snowflakes and snowmen are my absolute favorite. Today I am sharing all the details to create shaker cards that are filled with wintry wonderland magic. I have selected the most adorable stamp set called Chubby Snowmen and paired it with the Mini Christmas Sentiment Set.

Instructions Snowmen Cards:

Stamp images in black ink, die cut, and color with Copic alcohol markers.

Solar White: Create two A2 base cards and four A2 panels.

Acetate Transparency sheet: Cut two A2 panels

[TIP: To align the circles & ovals in cardstock panel and the fun foam panel, die cut the cardstock first, place over fun foam and remove outer panel leaving the die atop the fun foam, place die and in place and run through machine]

A2 Panels: Center and cut one oval nesting die in one, and one centered circle die from the other, distress ink blend the two remaining panels.

Fun Foam: Cut two 4”x 5.25” panels & die cut one circle centered in one, oval die centered in other.

Hand trim a piece of white cardstock into a wavy snowbank.

Heat emboss sentiments in white onto black cardstock & trim.

Attach the distress ink blended panel atop A2 cardbase and glue.

With the circle & oval cut cardstock, adhere transparency to underside, add snowbank to transparency and line up the cut fun foam and affix to transparency leaving the underside (space for sequins) face up to dry completely.

Fill underside with sequins and attach cardbase and let dry.

Attach images and sentiments.

Supply List Snowmen Cards:

Stamp Sets: Art Impressions 5351 Chubby Snowmen Set, 5847 Mini Christmas Sentiment Set

Dies: Art Impressions 5726 Nested Circle Dies, 5727 Nested Oval Dies

Cardstock: Neenah Solar White, Black, White Fun Foam, Transparency Sheet

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black Ink, Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide Ink

Markers: Copics: E11, YR21, YR24, YR04, R32, RV29, BV31, BV04, BG10, BG32, B12

Other: Versamark Clear Embossing Ink, Hero Arts White Detail Embossing Powder, Blending Brush, Heat Gun, Mini Blossom Die Cutting Machine, Spellbinders Platinum 6 Die Cutting Machine, Paper Trimmer, Scissors, Original Misti, Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue, Sequins

 

I hope you have enjoyed these cards as much as I have enjoyed creating them.  Shaker cards are so fun to make and shake!

 

Have the very best holidays and New Year!

 

Kimberly Wiener can be found on Instagram as @wienerhoneymooners 

Thank you Kimberly for your FABULOUS work!

We hope you'll come back and join us again sometime again.