Seas the Day | By Jessica Shier

Hello Ai Fans!

I have another Flip card to share with you today. This time I'm using the Octopus Flip card set. These flip card stamp sets make such cute little scenes and you can have them hold up the sentiment in so many different ways. This time I used a die from the Flag Double Stitch Die set to have the octopus hold a flag sentiment.

I started by stamping the octopus flip image on to a piece of Neenah 80lb Solar White card stock, with Amalgam ink. Using purple orange, pink and blue Copic markers to color in my image. I left just a bit of the image white like I do a lot when coloring. While coloring the Octopus I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the background. I decided on a simple underwater scene. 

All the Copic markers I used are listed below. The sand was easy, simple blending of some E markers adding a little definition and interest. I wanted this simple because I knew I was going to ink blend over the top of it. I added texture with a few of the darker markers by adding small dots through out the sand. For the water I did streaks or flicks of blue starting with the darkest color at the top, then fading to the lightest blue. Also adding more of the darker colors through out the panel.

I used Distress Oxide ink in Faded Jeans and Frayed Burlap to darken the edges. Using the makeup blending brushes I was able to get pretty close to the image with out masking or inking over it. I also blended Distress Oxide inks in Picked Raspberry and Spiced Marmalade on a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock, that I trimmed down with the second to largest Rectangle Double Stitch die. I concentrated the color around the outer edge because I knew it would mostly be covered by the Octopus copic colored panel.  I adhered those panels together then added a black card stock layer below the orange and pink blended card stock before gluing everything to a side fold A2 card base. 

I used both sentiments that come with the Octopus Flip stamp set. Stamping them onto Neenah 80lb card stock with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink. I let the ink sit for a moment to dry before running it through my die cutting machine with the banner die from the Flag Double Stitch die set. 

I could have made the inside similar to the front but I kept it simple and easy. I used a smaller Art Impressions Rectangle Double Stitch die and stamped the flip image of the Octopus. Using the same Copic markers I mirrored the coloring. The points of the flag should be on the other side to make it more mirrored, but that is ok! 

Copic Markers Used:

BV04, BV02, BV01, BV00

YR04, Y21, RV55, RV52

B14, B02, B00, 

W3, W1, W0

B29, B16, B14, BG11, B02, B00

E43, E35, E34, W31, W3, W6

Thank you for joining me today! Happy Stamping!!

Birthday Laugh Lines By Jessica Shier

Hey everyone!

Today I'm sharing a birthday mashup! I thought it would be funny to combine two sets from Art Impressions, the Birthday Laugh Lines with the Yoga set. This ole' guy has some stretching to do!

To start off with I stamped the Birthday Laugh Lines guy on to a piece of Neenah Solar White 80lb cardstock. I did the same for the Yoga ladies too. Using Copic markers I colored them in, list of markers used below.  I also stamped the sentiment that I thought paired hilariously with these two images. I inked that up with Gina K Wild Wisteria ink and trimmed it down to a slim rectangle. 

I wanted the ole' guy in the foreground with the ladies in the background. So I trimmed most of the area on the guy's left, using a trimmer to get straight edges when I didn't have to fussy cut.  These are both larger images and this is an A2 (4.25 x 5.5inch) card so there wasn't a lot of room to place these funny people. Both images are brightly colored so I needed something to separate the two. For that I used some vellum cardstock. This worked and gives a window feel to the design; like the Yoga ladies are in another room. 

I also created a black cardstock edge, using the Art Impressions Rectangle Stitch die, second from largest. Then used the same rectangle die on the ole guy so that the panel fit into the black frame. All I had left to do after that was layer and adhere everything. The layers are; Neenah 110lb cardbase, Yoga ladies, vellum, Birthday guy/black frame and then the sentiment. 

Copic Markers Used;

100 Black

W9, W6, W3, W1, W0

W74, W35, W51, W34, W31, W18, W17

E00, Y02, YR02, R14, R27

Y26, Y23, Y21, YG67, YG03, G14

BV04, BV02, BV00, RV09, RV55, RV11

Thank you so much for joining me today! Happy Stamping! 

HUGE Ai Birthday Sale! 32% OFF July 11 ONLY! PLUS, Challenge 260 Birthday Cards!

Our BIG news is here! To celebrate our 32nd birthday, we are gifting YOU a HUGE sale! Enjoy 32% off your entire purchase today (July 11) only with coupon code BDAY32! Shop everything on your wishlist, as this is our biggest sale ever!

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We are so blessed to be in business for 32 amazing years. The best part is our amazing fans and customers! We are convinced that Ai fans are the most enthusiastic, kindhearted and hilarious stampers out there! 

You can also join the celebration by entering our card challenge! The design team is here to share some fabulous inspiration featuring birthday cards, let's take a look! Remember you can visit the designer's blog by clicking their name, and find the stamp sets they used at artimpressions.com!

Carol with Lifetime Set


Crystal with Hamster Wheel Cubbies


Jessica with Succulents Set and Gotta Garden Set


Jil with Office Party Set



Niccole with Never Too Old Set

Renee with Holy Moley Set

Sharon with Never Too Old Set

Aren't birthday cards so fun to make? They're even more fun to receive! Make a special birthday card for someone in your life - or just to have on-hand for when a birthday sneaks up on you! Join our challenge, you have until July 17 to enter!

✻ 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 the deadline to enter your creations.

✻ Good luck and happy stamping!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Happy Stamping!

Old Goat's Club by Jil Lebel

Hello Ai fans!

I needed to make several birthday cards and a few of them were for men.  I wanted to keep them fun and colorful without many embellishments.  I got out the Old Goat Set and stamped out a bunch of images and have been coloring them while we've been watching movies. Now I have the cards I needed and some extra cards on hand!

The images were stamped onto Copic X Press It paper with Gina K Designs Black Amalgam Ink and colored with Copic markers.  The colors used are listed at the end of this post. They were then cut out using an Oval Double stitched die.  Another oval was cut from the Rainbow Perfectly Plaid 6" x 6" patterned paper from Lawn Fawn. Another layer of the plaid patterned paper was cut with the Rectangle A2 Double Stitched Dies and attached to a white A2 card base that has some Lawn Fawn twine wrapped around it.

One of the cards is left plane for a masculine look.  The card with the cake has some added embellishments.  White Blizzard Nuvo Crystal Drops are added to the image and around the background.  Nuvo Crystal drops in Blue Babe and Bubblegum Blush were also added around the background.

Copic Colors Used:
Card 1
Far left Goat - W00, W1, W3, W5, R11
Middle left Goat - E31, E33, E35, E37, R11
Middle right Goat - C00, C1, C3, C5, R11
Far right Goat - E19, E31, E33, E35, E37, R11

Card 2
Goat- E19, E31, E33, E35, E37, R11
Cake- W00, W1, R81, R83
Plate - W1, W3
Candles - C1, C3, B00, B1
Purple - BV00, BV02, BV04
Green - G14, YG03, YG01

Thanks for stopping by and Have a Great Day!

Hedgehog Birthday Card by Jil Lebel

Hello Ai fans!

One of my favorite things about Art Impressions is the cute images that give me a good chuckle.  The Hedgehogs set in the new funny farm release had me rolling.  The image I used today is a bit laid back, but I wanted to pair it with the WC Southwest set.  I often forget that I can use my watercolor series stamps with an ink pad.  Do you do the same thing?

The main image with the hedgehog leaning on the cactus was stamped onto the watercolor paper with Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink and heat set.  I then stamped the image onto a piece of mask paper and cut it out.  When cutting a mask, cut right along the middle of the stamped line.  The mask was then placed right over the image to protect it from the rest of the stamping. I then stamped the pot and the rock from the southwest set with the same ink and heat set the image again.  I stamped the pot onto a piece of mask paper and cut it out and placed it over the pot.  The cactus image from the watercolor set was the last image to be stamped and heat set.  All of the masks were removed.  The greeting was stamped into the top corner. One thing to remember when you are masking a scene is that you want to first stamp the images that you want in the front and work your way backwards.

Now for the fun part!  All of the coloring was done in the same way.  I worked in one section at a time and colored the Tombow markers directly onto the paper where I wanted the color to be the darkest.  I would then add very little water to my brush and add the water to the area that I wanted my color to be the lightest and move my brush into the color covering the entire image.  I did that for all of the same color at one time and let it dry.  Once it was dry it would usually need a second layer of color applied the same way.  I was sure to leave highlighted areas to add life to the images. The colors I used are listed at the end of this post.

Tombow Marker Colors Used:

Hedgehog - 969 Chocolate, 947 Burnt Sienna, 725 Rhodamine Red
Cactus - 177 Dark Jade, 098 Avocado
Pots - 837 Wine Red, 526 True Blue
Rocks - 969 Chocolate, 526 True Blue
Sky - 493 Reflex Blue

Thanks for stopping by and Have a Great Day!

Guinea Flip Birthday Card by Jil Lebel

Hello Ai fans!

I could hardly wait to start sharing the my flip cards with you.  They are so fun and different from anything else that is on the market right now.  I used the Guinea Flip Card Set along with a few images from the Octopus Flip card set to make a boyish Birthday card.

The images from the Guinea Pig Flip card set were stamped onto Strathmore Bristol Paper with Gina K Designs Black Amalgam Ink and colored with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers.  Several of the cupcakes from the Octopus Flip Card set were also stamped out and colored. The colors used are listed at the end of this post.  The color was applied to a Watercolor Palette and then applied with a #4 Brush in light Layers of color. All of the images were cut out.

The card base was cut with the Flip Card Die following the instructions on the stamp packaging.  The Happy Birthday sentiment was die cut out of black paper. The front of the card was colored using the MFT Mini Cloud Edge Mix-Ables Stencil with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.  Spare sheets of white cardstock were die cut with a grass border and colored with Bundled Sage and Iced Spruce Distress Ink.  They were splattered with watered down Iced Spruce Ink and added to the card using adhesive and foam tape.  The colored guinea pigs were added over the grass. The Happy Birthday die cuts were added over the guinea pig arms. The cupcakes were added around the card.

The inside was colored using the same stencil with Spun Sugar, Dried Marigold, Bundled Sage and Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.  The greeting was stamped onto the flap with black ink. The guinea pigs were attached right below the greeting.

Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers Used:
Guinea Pigs -Mid Brown 065, Lt. Beige 074, Mustard 067, Brown 060, Cool Gray 099, Deep Brown 068, Pale Pink 028
Cupcakes - Dull Blue 034, Shadow Mauve 303, Light Blue 036, Pink 025, Mustard 067

Thanks for stopping by and Have a Great Day!

Slothsome Birthday by Jil Lebel

Hello Ai fans!

My father's birthday was Sunday and I wanted to make him a fun card.  I knew that the Sloth-some Set 5002 would make the perfect card.  This sloth can feel masculine or feminine depending on the papers and embellishments I chose for the card.  I made two cards today.  To first card is the one I made for my father.  Happy birthday Dad!

The main image is colored with Copic markers.  The colors are listed below.  I used the Echo Park Party Time 6x6 paper collection by Dani Magstad.  The bottom card is embellished with some flat back gems that I attached with Ranger Multi Medium Matte.

Copic Colors Used:
Sloth - E31, E33, E35, E37
Branch - E13, E15, E19
Leaves - YG61, YG63, YG67
Hat - Y02, Y11, Y32, BG10, BG11, BG32
Balloon - BG10, BG11, BG32

Thanks for stopping by and Have a Great Day!

Sweet Birthday by Carol Hintermeier

Hello Ai Fans!

Today I have two cards to wish a friend a sweet happy birthday!  I used the Cottage Circlet MTF (mini trifold) for both.  Do you ever stamp something twice to have one extra to try out colors and such on?  That's what I did, but was super happy that I was able to use the second one too!

I colored all the images with my Prismacolor Premier Pencils.  Having a sharp pencil makes it easy to color all of the little parts.  I've made a list of the colors I used at the end of this post.  Don't worry about my long list.  I wanted to do some shading, but these would look beautiful colored with fewer pencils too!

I have lots of photos for you see these cards and how they look as you open them.

Isn't this stamp just so beautiful with the details?!!

After opening the first fold:




And the inside, where you can write your greeting:



Here's my second card:

Thank you so much for stopping by for a look and I hope you've found some inspiration for these sweet stamps!

Prismacolor Pencils used:

Spring Green, Grass Green, Kelly Green, Apple Green, Dark Green, Sap Green, Prussian Green, Sky Blue, Carribean Sea, Blue Slate, Non-Photo Blue, True Blue, Denim Blue, Indigo Blue, Light Peach, Jasmine, Yellow Ochre, Sunburst Yellow, Yellowed Orange, Carmine Red, Process Red, Mulberry, Terra Cotta, Chocolate, Sienna Brown, Light Umber, Dark Brown, 70% Cool Grey