Last Blooms by Gennette Houghton

Hello, and Welcome to Watercolor Weekend!  The last threads of summer are just about over and fall is settling in.  We are still having some warm days but have seen our first frost here.

There have been so many pretty sets that have been released lately!!  For my first card I used 6218 BJ Long Stem Set, and 5921 Glass Container Set.  I stamped the container first in Distress Ink Vintage Photo and cleaned off part of the top rim after stamping off twice.  I then used a stamp positioner to put in the florals, also in Vintage Photo, cleaning off just the very bottom of the stem after stamping off once, so I could overhang the leaves over the container.  I started with the flowers by putting in a base layer with 020, darkening the areas that would be shadowed before putting in 837 in the center and coming up part way.  For the leaves and stems I started with a base layer in 126, and then using 177 to contour and shade.  I used 076 on the container making sure I left a highlight in the middle, and then created some texture by adding in some darker sections.  I started with 526 for the background, dropping in shadows on the underside of all of the flowers and leaves, I then added in some 133.  969 was used at the base with a touch of 565 right under the container.  Cutting out my image with a die from 6114 Box Village Template and matted my image on a solid cardstock that matches the paper I chose from 5835 Mini Paper Pack.  The die I used on the solid cardstock is from 5768 Decorative Journal Page 1.

Fall is my favorite season, I just wish the best of it wasn’t so short lived.  There is nothing like the crisp air and watching all of the trees change color.  For this card I used 5935 Fairytale Houses and 5594 Harvest Scarecrow (sunflowers).  The house, fence, and sunflowers were all stamped in Distress Ink Pumice Stone after stamping off once.  Starting with a sheet of watercolor paper, I stamped in the house first and covered it with a mask.  I then added the fence and sunflowers, using a stamp positioner.  I then used the 6^th from the largest die from 5724 Nested Rectangle Dies to trace a guide, and also for cutting out my image once done. For the main body of the house I used N57, I then went over this, in areas, with some 249 for a patina look.  947 was used to create a rusty look.  For the wood trim and roof I used 969.  905 was used on the door and dormer.  I used a mix of 565 and 969 for the windows and chimney, adding in the details with the same mix.  I added in some 565 for the more shaded areas for shadows.  565 was also used to shade the fence, leaving the bulk of it white.  For the sunflowers, I started with the petals.  055 was used as the base, contouring with 025, and for the darkest areas a little bit of 026.  For the leaves and stems I used 126 first and then shaded with 177.  For the centers I started with 947, darkening a section with 969, and then added a touch of N15 for the deeper shadows.  I also added a couple of white dots with Bleed Proof White.  For the sky I used 403 watered down, and 177 for the ground with a bit of 969 for the path to the door.  I then took the tall grass from KH5951 Foxes Set in 177 and stamped several times on both sides in front of the fence.  I then used the grass from 5826 WC Large Tree Set 2 in 4 places stamping several times each in 177 with just a touch of 969 at the base.  I then added in some white flowers with Bleed Proof White.  My card base was matted with paper from 5838 Fall Paper Pack, and matted my image with matching solid cardstock using a die from my stash.  Thank you for joining me today and I hope you enjoyed my cards!  Until next time!  Create….Share….Inspire!!

 

Spooky fun fold card by Dori Mendiola

 Happy Wednesday AI Friends!

Halloween is just around the corner and I love making cards using Art Impressions fun assortment of sets.  This card also fits the "On the Border" challenge which ends tonight so I hope you all have entered for a change to win a free stamp set of your choice.

I used the #6111 - Spook-tacular set for this card as well as the #5604 - Halloween journal die set.  These sets are currently on sale at half off.  YAY!

 I stamped all of the images onto copic friendly paper with Memento black ink and colored with my copic markers listed below.  I then die cut them out with the coordinating dies that come with the set. 

I cut a base A2 card from white card stock.  Score in half and burnish.  I then trimmed off a 1 inch strip from the front.  I cut two pieces of black cardstock - one at 1" x 5 3/8" and one at 1" x 2".  I adhered a piece of the purple designer paper over the 1" x 2" piece.   I scored this piece at 1/2" and burnished it.  Adhere a piece of pattern paper to the other longer strip of black cardstock.  Glue the 1/2" tab of the 2" strip to the back of the longer strip (just above the center).  Now cut a scalloped circle from black cardstock and adhere that to the top of the smaller strip.  I then cut a piece of pattern paper using the #5726 - Nested circle dies and placed that over the black scallop circle.  

For the left side of the card, I cut a black piece of cardstock to fit the left panel and also a piece of pattern paper to fit over the top.

I decorated with the images and the card is finished with a fun fold opening.  BTW - the little grasses are in the #5935 - Fairytale Houses set.

 

I hope you enjoyed my card today and you enter the challenge.  Wouldn't you love to win a free stamp set?  

Have a great day creating!

Copics used:  E21, E23, E25, E50

T0, T2, T4, T6     R20

Y11, Y13, Y15, Y17

V12, V15, V17

YR12, YR14, YR16, YR18

Gnome Storybook by Dori Mendiola

 Happy Wednesday AI Friends!

Have you seen the latest storybook stamp and die sets?  Bonnie knocked it out of the park with the #6223 - Whimsical Storybook set with the little gnome and fairy!  Who doesn't love gnomes and fairies? 

There is a perfect little storybook box die that fits this set but I chose to use the #5902 - Mini Scallop Frame set and pop up the layers using foam tape instead of frame layers.   I thought I would show you how versatile these sets are and how you can use them with other products you may have in your collection.

With Khaki colored cardstock, I cut the mini scallop frame with the oval window die placed in the middle.  I then placed the scallop edge of the die on the straight edge of the frame piece and did a partial die cut so that the straight edge had a scallop cut as well.  I cut a piece of pattern paper with the same process and adhered to the front of the frame.  I also cut a small piece of pattern paper to fit the inside of the frame as the background.  

I stamped the images of the storybook stamp set onto copic friendly paper using Memento black ink and colored with my copic markers listed below.  I die cut each with the coordinating dies that are included with the stamp set.  I added stickles to the fairy wings.

You can trim off part of the curved tabs from the images but leave some for gluing into the frame.  I adhered the house flat to the background and then popped up the other pieces to create dimension within the frame.  

I added the sentiment from the #5935 - Fairytale Houses set to the label die, included with the frame set, and adhered it to the front of the frame with some twine.  To finish off, I added the easel to the back of the frame so that this little cutie can be placed on display.

Thanks for joining me today!  I hope you have a wonderful week and you find time to create with this cute set!

Copics used:  R20, R22, R24

E00, E01, E11, E21, E23, E50, E51, E53, E55

N0, N1, N2, N3    B0000, B000, B00, B01

   Y15      YG61    G12     BG93

Love Blooms Here by Reneé Matarese

 Hello Ai fans!

The current challenge is YELLOW and I couldn't be happier about that.

Yellow isn't my favorite color, however, I do feel it's the most CHEERFUL color there is.

Today I'm sharing a card with a cat sunning himself amongst some beautiful flowers.
This is a new release, 6195 – Love Blooms, and part of the Holiday Lane series.
These little scenes make putting a card together so easy. No figuring out placement or perspective. The work is done for you. You just fill in the blanks and personalize it.

Be sure to enter your project using yellow and you just might win a free stamp set. Click the photo below to be taken to the challenge.

Arteza Real Brush Pens:

Ice Blue

Bubble Gum Pink

Chocolate

Pea Green

Arctic Blue

Spearmint Blue

Sunset Yellow Honey

Pale Skin

Acid Yellow

Pretty Little Flower Shop by Reneé Matarese

 Hello Ai fans!

I created this card for our current Mix & Match challenge.
Use at least two different stamp/die sets on your card.

I used 2 stamp sets, 5 die sets and 2 paper pads on my card.
Variety is the spice of life, right?

I used my Arteza Real Brush Pens which are sort of between a marker and watercoloring the Art Impressions way.  Since I don't watercolor often, I decided to use die cut flowers and flowers painted with Dr. Ph Martin's Bleed Proof White Paint. I like the way they turned out.

The 6194 – Flower Shop is part of the new Holiday Lane series.

Arteza Real Brush Pens:

Sapphire Blue

Spearmint Blue

Turquoise

Pea Green

Tawny

Ginger

Honey

Currant Red

Ice Blue

Smoke Gray

Sending you a smile by Sharon Caudle

 Hello AI Fans!

I have a fun card to show you today that I hope makes you smile! I truly love mixing and matching Art Impressions stamp sets, so our current challenge was a breeze for me! It's a rare occasion that I only use one set!!  So many of their sets have awesome accessory stamps that can be combined with others!! I used four different sets to create this card. I stamped out several of the cute Fairytale Houses from #5935 and colored them with Copic markers and then I positioned a few of the trees and bushes from #5890 Village Accessories in between them to make it look like a cute little neighborhood. After creating a sidewalk in front of them by coloring a strip of gray, I stamped, colored, and die cut one of the cute gnomes from #5785. I just think he emits so much joy and was perfect to send a hello greeting to a friend.

I added a few die cut clouds and a sentiment from #5279 and it was all done! 

So that's it for me today! Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit and I hope you're entering our Mix and Match challenge for a chance to win a free set!! Until next time - stay crafty!!

Copic markers used for coloring:

E000, 00, 11, 31, 33, 35, 41, and 43

V20, 22, and 25

BG10, 11, 70, 72, and 75

Y00, 02, 21, and 23

G20, 43, and 46

YG13, 17, and 21

RV91, 93, and 95

BV000, 01, and 02

T1 and 2

C1 and 2

N2 and 4

Rain or Shine by Dori Mendiola

 Happy Thursday AI Friends!

Have you entered the latest blog challenge - "I See Right Through You"?  Anything that you can "see through" will qualify (ie windows, globes, shakers, etc.).  Make sure to enter for a chance to win a free stamp set.

I chose to use two of the freebie bears along with the fence and daisies from the #5935 - Fairytale houses.  I made an acetate window with raindrops for the front with the umbrella freebie bear and then a sunshine scene on the inside with the freebie holding a daisy.

I stamped the bears and daisies with memento black ink and colored with my copic markers listed below.  I then fussy cut the bears and used the coordinating dies with the daisies.

To create the raindrop window, I inked blended two panels the same.  I used the MFT Falling From the Clouds die set.  I then cut a piece of acetate large enough to fit the opening.  I made some score marks diagonally and then dropped some glossy accents onto the acetate along the score marks to resemble rain.  Let the glossy accents dry and then glue to the back side of the opening.  I cut another window frame to cover the acetate edges on the inside. 

I decorated the inside with the daisies, fence, sun and bear.  I shut the front of the card and adhered the rain bear to cover the daisy bear from the front.  I also placed clouds over the front to cover the sun on the inside.  The daisies will be seen through the window.  I added a few little white hearts to the corners and grass to the bottom of the fence posts.  The front sentiment is from the #5797 - Little Things Sentiments and the inside sentiment was just made up to fit the scene.

That's it for me today!  Hope you enjoyed!

Make sure to play along and enter the blog challenge for a chance to win a free stamp set.

Have a great day and keep creating!

Copics used:  E50, E51, E53, E55

B000, B12, B14

R20, R22, R24

Y13, Y15, Y17, Y21

G20, G21

Friends are Flowers by Dori Mendiola

 Happy Thursday AI Friends!

Oh Man, I had such a fun time making this card.  My inspiration came from a combination of the newly released Story Tile sets and die as well as the current blog challenge "The People In Your Neighborhood".  For my card, I used the #5798 - Gardening Girlfriend set, the #6177 - Garden Friends set and the #6158 - Story Tile Template Die as well as a few accessories from some other sets that are listed below.  

I started by stamping all of the images onto copic friendly paper with Memento black ink and colored with my copic markers listed below.  I decorated some of the images with my white marker (you can also use the Dr. PH Martin white paint).  I fussy cut the girl as well as the story tile garden images.  

I cut the story tile window frame from a piece of pink cardstock and a piece of pattern paper from the #6051 - Mother's Day PP.  I layered the pattern paper over the pink cardstock and shifted it slightly to the right and upwards so that the pink showed through the window slightly.  This provided a nice little contrast and helped pop up the images as well as the pattern papers underneath.  Then a die cut some other pattern papers from this paper pack with the story tile die and placed them behind the pink frame.

I stamped the sentiment from the Garden Friends set and adhered behind the narrow window.  I popped up each of the images with foam tape into the other windows and decorated the pots and boots with flowers from the #5935 - Fairytale houses set and the #6076 - Gardener Gail set.  To finish off the card, I colored a few bees from the Fairytale Houses set and placed them near the flowers. 

Make sure to check out the newly released sets and also the bi-weekly blog challenge for a chance to win a free stamp set of your choice.  We love to see your creations!

Thanks for joining me today!  Have a wonderful day and keep creating!

Copics used:  E00, E01, E11, E21, E23, E25

R20, R24,      C1, C3, C5

Y32, Y35, Y38,   YG41, YG45

B91, B93, B95,    RV52, RV55

The People In Your Neighborhood Challenge #422

 Hello Ai fans!

Welcome to the new challenge here on the Art Impressions Challenge Blog.

We want to see your crafty projects using stamps with PEOPLE.
Enter your handmade project using something from Art Impressions and featuring people!

You just might win a free stamp set.

Our amazing Featured Artist this week is Sharon.

After you look through her lovely photos and tutorial, be sure to

scroll down to see who won our 'It's in the Mail' challenge.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Hello AI Fans! 

If you know me, you know how much I LOVE all the amazing people characters that Bonnie creates for us! So I'm super excited to have a feature for our new challenge "The People in Your Neighborhood". I wanted to show you a fun fold card today, so lets get busy. I have a ton of pictures and measurements for you, so grab your favorite drink! I started by grabbing #5798 Gardening Girlfriends Set and stamping her onto a Copic friendly paper. To be honest, I was originally planning on putting flowers into those baskets she's carrying. But as you can see, my plans changed. LOL! I really can't even remember why I thought about putting the Gnomes into the baskets. I was stamping and coloring with Dori, so she very well might have had something to do with it. LOL! But I tried fitting them in there and they fit perfectly! All I could picture was her going out to her garden to gather vegetables, and found Gnomes instead. I couldn't stop giggling while I was creating it! After adding the Gnomes into the baskets, I just HAD to add the curious pup that wants a Gnome for him/herself. The Copic colors I used to color them are listed at the bottom of this post. First, here's a picture of the completed card. 

So anyway, on to how to create this card. I started with a piece of cardstock measuring 5 1/2" by 7 1/2". With the longer side on the top of your score board, score at 3 1/4" and 6 1/2". Create a Z fold by folding the 3 1/4" flap away from you creating the card base, then fold the 1" piece towards you so it looks like the picture below this next one. 

You will then want to cut your mats. I created my mats using another layer of cardstock and then a layer of pattern paper. I did this because the cardstock I was using was quite thin. If you don't want to create another layer of cardstock, just cut your pattern paper to the cardstock sizes listed below and eliminate the 3rd size. You can go ahead and glue the pattern paper mats into place, but don't glue your sentiment panel into place yet.

colored cardstock - 3 pieces measuring 5 3/8" x 3 1/8"

                               1 piece measuring 7/8" x 5 3/8"

pattern paper:  2 pieces measuring 5 1/4" x 3"

                        1 piece measuring 3/4" x 5 1/4"

white cardstock: 1 piece measuring 5 1/4" x 3"

After getting my card base completed, I turned my attention to my colored image. I pulled out #5725 Nested Square Dies and #6047 Scalloped Square Dies and picked the ones that fit it best. I die cut the image with the Nested Square Dies, then used another piece of cardstock to cut out the coordinating mat for the image, then glued them together. 

I wanted to stamp a sentiment onto the image panel before putting it on the card. Both the front and inside sentiments are from #5935 Fairytale Houses Set. I thought finding Gnomes in your garden was pretty magical. 

Once that was done, I put foam tape only on the right side of the back of the image. You only want to adhere it to the 1" flap. 

Figure out where you want to place the image on the card and go ahead and adhere it into place. Also glue your sentiment panel into place. 

A view from the top...

I wanted to add something else to the front, so I pulled out #5972 BJ Decorative Margins Die Set and created a small strip for the top and bottom of the front panel and added a little bow. I was quite surprised and how quickly and effortlessly this card went together. 

So that's it for me today! I hope you play along with the challenge for a chance to win a free set from Art Impressions! Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit and until next time - stay crafty!!

Copic markers used:

E000, 00, 11, 31, 33, 35, 41, 42, 43, 44, 50, 51, 53, 55, 57, 95, 97, and 99

YG11, 13, 17, and 21

B00, 91, 93, and 95

R12

C1 and 2

Y32, 35, and 38

Now, let's see who won our It's in the Mail challenge.

For our Top Spot we selected:

Michelle Hoskins

She used a wide variety of Art Impressions stamps from the more whimsical series like the mushrooms and gnomes.

Please contact Leah at Feedback@artimpressions.com

to claim a free stamp set of your choice!!

Be sure to grab your winner's badge to display on your social media.

Our Lucky Random Winner was:

#13 Andrea W.

Please contact Leah at Feedback@artimpressions.com

to claim a free stamp set of your choice!!

Be sure to grab your winner's badge to display on your social media.

Congratulations to both of our winners!

Now for our new challenge!

 ✻ Please make a new card or handmade crafty creation using either stamps, dies and or designer paper from Art Impressions. You can make any item you wish; this is not limited to cards! (unless specified)

✻ Limit two submissions per person.

✻Top Spot Winner and Lucky Random Winner each receive a free stamp set from Art Impressions

 ✻Please include your first name and last initial on your submission. You may include your entire last name, but it's not necessary.

✻We love to comment on your entries, but keep in mind if you use a private group or a platform that you need to sign up for, we probably won't be able to.

✻ 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 if you can, by clicking and commenting on your fellow crafters.

✻ Make sure to get your link up by the deadline to enter your creations.

✻ Good luck and happy stamping! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter