August 2025 Monthly Challenge with Sara Furr

Hello Ai fans and welcome to the August Monthly Challenge.
Our Guest Designer for August is Sara Furr and she has two GORGEOUS cards for you.

After enjoying Sara's cards and learning her Faux Watercolor Technique, be sure to scroll down to see who our July winners were.

Here's Sara....

 Greetings from the Farm, crafty AI fans! I am Sara Furr, The Crafty Farm Chick, and I am so happy to be back here on the blog with you today. 

My first card is a Shabby Chic religious creation. These are the supplies that I used:

#6025- Fear Not stamp set

#4051- Foliage set 1

#6082- Bible Journal series 1 paper pack

#5543- Journal Template Die set 

#5768- Decorative Journal Page 1 Die set 

Memento tuxedo black ink pad

Versafine Onyx Black ink pad

Dye ink markers

Alcohol ink markers

Tumbled glass distress ink

Blending brush

Seam binding ribbon and Lace

Foam tape

Adhesive

Glue dots

Scissors- to Distress the edges of my cardstock and dsp
Post it tape- for masking sheep

I colored my image using my "hybrid faux watercolor technique". Several people have asked me to do a tutorial for this technique and so I am including it here today. 

To start, I stamped my sheep image from the "Fear Not" stamp set in Memento tuxedo black ink so that I can color the image with alcohol markers.

  I colored the face and legs of my sheep with a black alcohol marker and added little swirls in a light gray ink to mimic the curly wool on the sheep. I also added a touch of pink inside of his ear. 

 Next, I stamped the tufts of grass, from the "Foliage Set", in 2 different shades of green dye based ink markers under his feet. 

Then, I stamped the flowers and foliage with dye ink markers in the right hand corner.

 I created a mask for my sheep's wool and stamped the floral vine image behind his back with Momento ink. 

**Here is a tip** if you are unsure about how an image will look before you stamp it, just use a piece of window sheet over your image and stamp it so that you can see how it will look before you actually stamp it! *this is what is shown here*

 I then removed the window sheet and leaving just the floral vine stamp in place, I did the actual stamping behind the sheep with Momento Black ink. (I washed and removed the sentiment)

 I then colored the floral vine with alcohol markers, but I added in the definition in the flowers with the fine point of a dark blue dye ink marker. 

 I then went in with a light green alcohol ink marker and blended out my grasses and where my sheep is standing. It is this blending of the dye ink by the alcohol ink marker that creates a sort of "faux watercolor" look! 

 Now, to create my sky I added the metal die back to my die cut and ink blended Tumbled Glass Distress ink around the inside perimeter of the die. The die acts like a mask! 

Now, remove the die and voila! A perfectly masked and blended sky! ( you're welcome! )

 I stamped the sentiment in Black Versafine Ink and then assembled the front of my card.

I followed the same process to stamp and color the image on the inside.

For my second card I followed the same technique process on the Decorative Journal Page 1 die, except this time I blended my sky first with a blender brush and the Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.  Then I did all my other stamping and blending.

These are all the supplies I used:

#5543- Journal Template Die set 

#5768- Decorative Journal Page 1 Die set 

#5063- A2 Double Stitched Rectangle dies

#6082- Bible Journal series 1 paper pack 

#4964- WC Branches set

#5009- WC Mini Flower set

#5007- WC FOLIAGE set 3

#4966- WC Bird Bath set

#4873- WC Cats set

Momento Tuxedo Black ink 

Alcohol ink markers 

Dye ink markers 

Window sheet

Liquid glue that dries clear

Foam tape 

Scissors- to Distress the edges of my dsp and to cut out my kitty

Blender brush 

Tumbled Glass Distress Ink 

Stamp positioning tool

Stylus and Foam mat- used to curve my cat

I stamped and colored my kitty and cut her out. I colored her gray to look like my kitty, "Mouse". She is this beautiful lavender gray color, so I did a mix of light grays a very light purple ( all Alcohol ink markers). Once she was cut out I flipped her over and put her onto a foam mat and rubbed over the center of the image with a stylus to round the body so she looks domed. Then, I added two thin pieces of foam tape and set her aside.

To create my window, I first cut three layers of the window from the Journal Template die set. I adhered two layers together with a thin layer of liquid glue, then I cut a piece of window sheet the same size as the window frame and adhered that to the back of the window, and then added the third layer of the window frame to the back so that the window sheet was sandwiched between the layers, creating an actual look of a window pane. I then adhered the window over my stamped panel and added my popped up kitty on the ledge looking at her snack up in the tree! 

 I then adhered the whole decorative window panel to a double stitched A2 rectangle die cut out of white card stock, and then adhered that to my beautiful designer paper from the Bible Journal paper pack with foam tape. I distressed the edges of my designer paper with a scissors, and added adhesive to the back, and then added it to my card base. I didn't add any sentiment because I thought it was perfect the way it was

I hope you liked my cards and that you got inspired to create something pretty, with a little bit of shabby chic! If you have any questions about my "hybrid faux watercolor technique" please don't hesitate to ask!

Blessings to you all and thank you so much for stopping by!

Now let's see who the two Lucky Random Winners were for our July Monthly Challenge.

The winner of the free stamp set from Art Impressions was Rachel Bankes.

Please contact Leah at Feedback@artimpressions.com

to claim a free stamp set of your choice!!

The winner of a freebie from me was Kathy R.
Please email me at Renee@artimpressions.com with your full name and address and I'll send you a photo of the freebies I have available for you to choose from.

Welcome to the August 2025 Monthly Challenge! There is no theme but you MUST use something from Art Impressions on your project. (Stamps, dies and or paper) First name and last initial is appreciated on your entry. You are allowed 2 entries. Both winners are chosen randomly. The first winner receives a free stamp set from Art Impressions and a random winner with a U.S. address will win a freebie from me. (Renee)

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Fall into Winter by Gennette Houghton

Hello and welcome to Watercolor Weekend! I have always considered November to be a transition type of month. Here in Michigan it is common to see our first snow even though fall is still in swing unless we have had a hard frost.  So today I have a fall and winter card to show you. 

For my 1^st card I used an older set that I am very fond of, the 4701 Clay Pot set, inking it in the 565/969 combo and stamped off twice. Since I wanted this to be the base color I mixed up the same 2 colors to darken the color.  I went over the top of this with 526 and added some more 565 for the shadow areas.  The rust I used 947 with 969 in spots to make the rust look darker in some areas.  The mistake I made is that I should have kept the bottom light so that it didn’t show so much through the grass. Do I think it ruined it? No, I don’t think so, but definitely something to keep in mind. 

I then masked off the clay pot and chose the sunflowers from 5594 Harvest Scarecrow Set inking them in 947 and stamped them off once.  For the petals I used 025 all over and 946 at the base of the petals and any area overlapped or shadowed.  947 and 969 on the center using the 969 just along the edge with a couple of dots of Bleed Proof White for highlights.  The stems I used 126 with 177 for the darker areas especially right under the flower heads.  I used the branch and dried flower from the Clay Pot set after masking the sunflower in the center, using 969 on the branch and 027 on the dried flower. 526 was used for the sky. As I was making this card I saw our first Junco, I call them my winter robins, they migrate from the north to here for the winter and they are a little early this year. So I decided to honor them by adding one to my painting.  Using 4966 WC Bird Bath Set I stamped the bird in N35, using my positioner to position it on the handle. Pulled the color out and added a little bit more for the darker areas, I used a little bit of the Bleed Proof White for some highlights and the belly. 055 on the beak and a black micron for the eye.  The grass I used is from the 5826 WC Large Tree Set 2, inked in 2 colors 177 with a touch in 2 spots of 969. I then cut my image out with the dies from 5588 Journal Oval Frames Die set, I still have the 2 dies connected together. I matted the card with paper from 5835 Mini Journal PP, after gluing the outside piece down, I popped up the center on foam tape. I used 5600 Harvest Sentiment set and used an edge die from the 5543 Journal Template set. I felt it needed something so I added the leaves from KH5951 Foxes set. The leaves are in a bunch of 3, so I inked just the one for the left and the other 2 for the right, using the stamp positioner to place them where I wanted them to be, inking them in 946. I then used 025 for the base adding in 946 in the shadowed areas and darkened the deeper shadow areas with 905. I then used 565 to create a shadow under the leaves and sentiment. 

For my 2^nd, and winter card, I used the KH5951 Foxes Set. I first used a piece of watercolor paper and using N49 I created birch patterns adding more color to the sections while still wet until I was happy with how it looked.  I then ran the paper through an embossing snowflake folder.  Taking the largest die from the 5064 Circle Double Stitched Dies I offset the die so that part of it would be off the page. I then took another piece of watercolor paper and placed it behind and lining up the cut edge, I traced around the circle so I knew where to put my scene.  I then stamped the foxes in N49, stamping off once first, and pulled the color out adding more as necessary in the darker areas.  I used a black micron on the eyes and noses and then added 565 to create my shadows on the foxes and also underneath them.  

Masking off the foxes I stamped in the 2 birch trees from 5826 WC Large Tree Set 2 also in N49 with a stamp positioner, and stamped each one off first. After pulling the color out and adding just a touch more in the birch pattern I then used 565 to shade both sides of the trees and under the branches.  526 was used for the sky and bringing the color in as carefully as I could so that I would have a dark enough background to allow the snow I put on the branches using Bleed Proof White to show. Using the branch from the Fox Set, I stamped it in 879 and then used the bullet tip on the 885 marker for the berries. Adding more 565 at the base of the tree and in sections below the foxes along with Bleed Proof White for the snow on the ground adding a touch more of 565 to give the snow dimension including the snow on the branches. Leaving the right side of my 2 pieces of paper as it is, I then cut my papers down to 4 x 5 ¼ inches doing my best to center the circle and image checking the 2 together to make sure they continued to match together.  After erasing the pencil line, I then glued to 2 pieces together, matting them on a matching gray cardstock leaving just a thin border and then gluing them to my card base. 

Thank you for joining me today and I hope you enjoyed my cards! Until next time. Create….Share….Inspire!