Flower Box Foundations by Dori Mendiola

Happy Thursday AI Friends!

Today I have a fun fold card with two images from the newest Art Impressions release.  If you haven't seen the release yet, make sure to pop on over to the Art Impressions website to see the six floral stamp sets, Flower Shop book template and two paper packs.  What a fun and adorable bundle!

I used two of the stamp sets for my card.  #6193 - Petals and Blooms and #6197 - Flower Delivery along with some flower images from the #5511 - Floral Truck.  I also used the #6114 - Holiday Lane Village Template for the image panels.

I stamped the images onto copic friendly paper with Memento black ink and colored with my copic markers listed below.  I die cut the florals with the corresponding dies.  I cut slits into the pots and trimmed off part of each floral base so that it tucks into the pots with the flowers peeking out the tops. 

I also added some foam tape behind the flowers for dimension.

The fun fold is an A2 Z-fold card.  I cut a piece of heavy cardstock at 8 1/2" by 5 1/2".  Fold and score at 2 1/8" (mountain) and 4 1/4" (valley) along the 8 1/2" side.  For the inside, you will need one piece of cardstock measuring 3 1/2" x 2 1/4".  Score along the 2 1/4" side and mountain fold at 1/2, 1, 1 1/2 and 2".  This inside piece will create a square tube.  Adhere the 1/4" tab to the opposite side creating the tube (see below).  After adhering your matted panels on the inside of the card, adhere this tube to the inside back and left side of fold.

For the inside image panel I colored and fussy cut the wagon part of the #6197 - Flower Delivery stamp set.  I tucked the flowers into the pots like above.  I used the #5776 - FB Sitting Girl as the delivery girl taking a break with her wagon full of flowers.  😀 She fits so perfectly with the wagon.

I adhered this panel to the top level of the tube.  When the card is shut, the card will lay flat for mailing but yet stand up on display when opened.

That's it for me today.  Thanks for joining me!

I hope you have a wonderful day and keep creating!

Copics used:  E51, E53, E55,     B21, B25

G20, G21, G24     Y13, Y15, Y17

YR61, YR65, YR68      R81, R83, R85

T0, T2, T4

Hello Fall by Dori Mendiola

 Happy Thursday AI Friends!

My card today is inspired by the Challenge "All the Fall".  I should probably have made a Halloween card since today is Halloween, but oh well.  😏  Instead, I chose to welcome in the Fall season using the 5776 Front and Back Sitting Girl, the 5460 Halloween Slimline and the 5783 Fall Leaf Frame die.

I began by stamping the images using Memento black ink on copic friendly paper and colored with copic markers listed below.  For the wagon and the pumpkins, I did a partial stamp of the bottom portion of the 5460 Halloween Slimline set.  I used the die to cut it out and then cut off the owl and above leaving the pumpkins and the wagon.  The sitting girl fits perfectly on the pumpkins and I added a leaf to cover the missing portion of the pumpkin.  I cut her arm to place the leaves under so it looks like she is holding them.  

I cut two leaf frames from two different colors of cardstock and inlaid the opposite color die cut pieces into the corresponding spot on the other frame.  This will give you a two for one frame to use on another card.  I placed a piece of the falling leaf pattern paper from the 5838 Fall paper pack behind the frame for the background.  I then popped up the girl sitting on the pumpkins and adhered to the frame.  Since I didn't have the same color pop dots or nuvo drops, I made my own.  I placed a piece of packing tape over the rust colored cardstock and punched out several pieces using a hole punch.  The packing tape gives a glossy look, but you can also add glossy accents.  I recommend adding the glossy accents after adhering the dots to your card as they are tiny and hard to work with when loose.

Hope you enjoyed my card today!

Happy Halloween, Happy Fall and Happy Nevada day for those of us in Nevada.

Copics used:  E00, E01, E8, E11, E13, E15

E21, E23, E25, E42, E44, E47, E53

N0, N2, N4, N6

R20, RV52, RV55, RV66

YR14, YR16, YR18, YR21, YR68

Brand new Hot Air Balloon Set from Art Impressions

 Hello AI Fans!!

Have you seen the new Hot Air Balloons Set that was released last week? How fun!! If you've ever seen a hot air balloon race, you'll understand how wonderful it is to look up to a sky filled with these coloreful balloons! I've never been lucky enough to be able to ride in one, but I sure do enjoy them from the ground!! We have on in Reno every September, and the sight is truly wonderful! All images were stamped onto Cryogen white paper with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with Copic markers. 

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

Fall Mini Scrapbook Layout Page by Nina

 Hello Ai friends, Nina here with a new mini 6 X 6 scrapbook page. I was creating a project for our current "fall for Fall" Challenge so I thought bringing these two front & back sets together would look so cute.

I am using the F&B Sitting Girl Set and the F&B Boy Set. I am also using the Fall Leaf Frame Die Set and the cute pumpkins from the Front Porch Harvest Set as well as the Journal Fence Dies Set.

I stamped the adorable images using My Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and my Mini Misti and colored them using my Copic Markers.

Copic Shades:

Blue Green: BG32 BG34

Oranges: YR24 Yr27 YR01 YR21 YR07

Reds: R21 R22 R24 R37

Yellow Greens: YG95 YG97

Yellow: Y38

Browns: E43 E42 E17 E15 E13 E11 E25 E27 E29 E99 E59 E37

I then die cut my images, put them aside to start creating my scrapbook layout background.

I cut a piece of Checkered Pink pattern paper into a little bigger than 5.5 X 5.5 Inch and used a Fall paper collection from my stash.

I cut two hillsides and stacked them behind each other to give to be my ground of the scene. I backed the boy, girl and pumpkins with foam tape and made them stand on the hillside. I made the girl sit on a fence that I die cut using one of the dies from the Journal Fence Die Set from different blues horizontally near the bottom of the page.

I then cute the four squares of the letters forming the word Fall from the same paper collection and backed only two of them with foam tape to give a variety of dimension and attached them towards the top of my layout.

I die cut multiple leaves from different pattern papers using the Leaf Frame Die Set and glued them behind the girl, the fence, the hillside and the pumpkins. I even places some around the word blocks.

I finish off with couple heart stickers and enamel dots then placed my whole panel on a light teal background.

  

Fall Greetings Card by Tasha!

 Happy Friday Ai Fans!

Tasha here sharing a Fall themed card inspired by the current #360 Fall into Fall Challenge. My project features the super cute 5776 - FB Sitting Girl stamp and the 5595 - Harvest Pumpkin Set. 

To begin the card, I stamped the girl image and used the included coordinating die to cut her out. Since this is a Fall card, I decided to color her clothing to coordinate with the pumpkins. I love the patterns on her shirt and socks!

For the background, I stamped three pumpkins and used masking paper to cover them before ink blending the sky. If you haven't tried masking, I suggest giving it a try. You can make so many different scenes and pulling the masking paper up to reveal your hidden images is really fun!

Continuing with the orange and blue color combination, I cut a frame out of orange paper and embossed the "Fall Greetings" on to navy blue paper. I also added layers of orange card stock, gold glitter paper, and a pretty knit print pattern paper to complete the design. 

Thank you for checking out today's card and I hope you will participate in the #360 Fall into Fall Challenge!

Have a great weekend!

Watercolor Weekend 9-16-2023

 Hello and welcome to Art Impressions' Watercolor Weekend!

Today we have three very unique and amazing cards from our Watercolor Design Team.
This week it's Diane's turn to share first.  Let's see what she made!

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Hello Ai Watercolor Fans! Who is ready for fall? I’m looking forward to cooler temperatures, the leaves changing colors, sweater weather, apple cider, and pumpkin spice! One of our favorite things to do in the fall is to visit our local pumpkin patch for an afternoon of fun and food. When our son and daughter were little, we always made sure to get a photo of them sitting on straw bales, surrounded by pumpkins and other fall decorations. Today’s card is inspired by those memories. I’ll be using Art Impressions 5776 – FB Sitting Girl, 5777 – FB Sitting Boy, 5594 – Harvest Scarecrow Set, 5598 – Harvest Set, and 5507 – Harvest Together Set to create this adorable fall scene.

For this card, some masking is required – but nothing too complicated. When I have a scene that uses multiple image stamps, I will create a “blueprint” of sorts to follow. This way I’ll know what order to stamp each image to create the scene. When it comes time to stamp the images onto your Canson XL watercolor paper, you can place your blueprint into a Misti Stamp Platform and align your stamps in the proper positions. Or you can use a clear block and stamp positioner where necessary.

I started off by making masks of the girl and boy from 5776 and 5777, making sure to cut all around them and between their feet. All images where stamped in 969 (you could use 565/969 instead). Remember to stamp off before adding to your watercolor paper! I used the blueprint to guide where to stamp the girl and boy. I covered the kids with the masks and then stamped the straw bales from 5598, aligning so as to make it appear they are sitting on the bales. Next, I used a small piece of Post-It tape to mask the straw bales. With the masks still in place, I stamped the basket of pumpkins, gourds, and apples between the girl and boy, just back a bit, so it will appear to be behind them. Next I stamped in the sunflowers from 5594. And finally, I stamped the scarecrow into the basket of fall produce and removed the masks. With a damp brush, I pulled out some color from the stamped images to add contours and shadows.

I used the following colors to paint each image:

Girl – skin (850, 910), cheeks (touch of 856), hair (969), shirt, shoes and hair ties (856), overalls (565)

Boy – skin (850, 910), cheeks (touch of 856), hair (025, 026), shirt (158), overalls (990, 969), patch (933, 993) and boots (969)

Straw bales – straw (026), twine (969)

Sunflowers – flowers (025, 026), leaves and stems (249)

Produce Basket – basket (990, 969), red band (856, 847), green band (249), orange pumpkins (933, 993), blue pumpkin (312), yellow orange pumpkin (993), red apple (856, 026), green apple (173­­­, 177), stems (969), and gourd (850, 910)

Scarecrow – face (850, 910, 969), nose (933), straw hair and hands (026), shoes (969), shirt (933), overalls (947), hat (158, 177), patches (856, 933, 565), pole (969) and robins (969, 856)

I used 969 for the ground, and I added more layers of 969 to darken the shadowed areas. I brushed in a watery sky with 526. Next I stamped the “Hay Friend” sentiment from 5507, in the upper left area. As a final touch, I added back any details where necessary with a brown TwinTone. To finish the card, I die cut the painting with a rectangle from 5724 – Nested Rectangle Dies and mounted to an A2 card base.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little taste of the coming season! Thank you for joining us for another Watercolor Weekend and until next time – Happy Painting!

Now let's see what Karen made.  She has a different type of card than you're used to seeing from her and we know you're going to love it!

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I stamped the little 5780 - FB Sitting Dog onto some Bristol Smooth Cardstock using Tombows 565 & 969, and painted him with N55, adding layers where he needed to be darker.  I went over his features with my Black Twintone marker, then cut both the front and back out with the matching dies.  I did the same with the bird from 5261 - WC Large Birdhouse Set, painting him with 533 and fussy cutting him out.

To create the window, I cut the window frame from 5770 - FB Farm Fence Die Set in white cardstock - twice, and cut the shutters out in black.  It's a little hard to see in the photos, but I cut 1/2" strips of pale blue cardstock, and glued them all together to mimic the wood siding on a house.  I ran this panel through my machine with the 5063 A2 Rectangle Double Stitched Die, then cut out two black & white polka dot rectangles as well.  The black one was glued inside my card to be the 'inside' of the house, and the white polka dot piece was glued to the inside of the window.  Once I had created my layers for the front of my card, I used the rectangle die that cuts out the window, then glued the two window frames on the inside and outside of my card.

The pup was glued together and placed with his head sticking out the window to look up at the bird.  The dies that cut him out also cut out under his paws, which allowed me to let them perch on the windowsill.  I cut out my Memory Box Twig die in some kraft cardstock and glued it to my card so that there would be a good spot to have the bird standing on one of the branches.  The sentiment from 5734 - Friend Sentiments Set was stamped in Versafine Onyx Black ink.

Even though this is an easy card - it required a lot of planning!  You have to think before you glue things together, making sure you're not missing a step.  It's also important with a Front & Back card to have the inside look nicely finished - so I made sure to have some patterned paper on the reverse of the front panel to not have the dog sitting there on his own.

Tricia did something a little different this week too in the form of how she is presenting her card.  She created a step by step slideshow to help you recreate her card.  You can pause this slideshow to follow along with her.

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(Hey there!  This is Reneé chiming in on Tricia's card.  Do you know I was so fascinated by the two children and how incredible they are that I didn't even notice the ghosts haunting them until the third or fourth time I looked at this?? lol! What a focal point.  The details around them are just a huge bonus)

Thank you amazing DT!!  You always have such gorgeous art to share with us.

Remember, if you create something using Art Impressions products be sure to tag us on IG or FB. @ArtImpressions

We'll see you back here on October 7th.

WOW!! Can you believe it's almost October??

Sitting Amongst the Flowers by Reneé Matarese

Are you feeling blue?

Everyone at Art Impressions is.

But...in a good way!

The latest challenge on the blog is Feeling Blue.

We've been challenged to use lots of blue on our projects. On my two cards I used blue paper, paper with blue flowers, I colored some of my flowers blue and I have a blue flower pot.

For my first card, I took the shutters from 5770 – FB Farm Fence Die Set, cut them in half and turned them sideways because they made me think of a flower box planter.  I then filled them with flowers from the new 5794 – Whimsical Flowers.

On my first card, the 5776 – FB Sitting Girl is sitting on the fence.  On my next card I perched her on the window sill. I know that may seem a little far fetched but we'll call it artistic license.  Actually, when I was in Austria this spring our hotel room had a ledge outside the window that would have been wide enough to sit on.  I wouldn't recommend it though since we were on the second floor...lol!  We used it as a fridge since we didn't have one in our room.

Inside the house there's a flower pot and watering can from 5792 – WC Mini Journal Containers.

The little tufts of grass are not from Art Impressions but I wanted to give a little shout out.  I recently took a trip to Buffalo and was lucky enough to visit Buffalo Stamps Store.  One of the things I purchased was Scene Building: Grass Tufts Dies.  This store is INCREDIBLE!!  There are so few Brick and Morter stores left and it was so fun to wander (in awe) at all of the product sitting right in front of you.  If you're ever remotely close to that area I highly recommend you pay them a visit.  They carry Art Impressions stamps.  I didn't buy any of those because I already owned them all but some were retired so that's a huge bonus for a fan!  I wasn't able to link below from the Buffalo Stamps Store but I did link from Picket Fences.

In case you were wondering, I did not fussy cut all of these little flowers.  I have a Brother Scan and Cut which is great for the WC sets that don't come with dies.

Where I live, it's Fall now.  The last of my flowers are waning.  We'll have a few mums and asters for a bit longer but I'll have to live vicariously through the flowers on my cards until next April.