Laugh Harder by Sharon Caudle

Hello AI Fans!!

So.....how many of you are thinking about pumpkin lattes? LOL!! Some people are definitely, and others are cursing under their breath with just the mention of it! LOL!  I love this stamp T4136 Girlfriend Blend from the Girlfriends Line at Art Impressions! AI has so many wonderful sentiments, so I grabbed one from AICS05 Dare to be Fabulous Set and cut it out using 5133 Flag Double Stitched Dies. 

Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit today and hope you have an amazing weekend!  Until next time - stay crafty!! 

Copic markers used:

E000, E00, E04, E11, E13, E21, E31, E33, E35, E37, E39, E40, E41, E42, E43, E44, E70, E71, E74, E93, E95, E97

B000, B00, B02, B04

R02, R20,. R37, R56

Y17, Y23, Y26, Y32, Y35

T5, T6, T7

Gnome-one like you! by Reneé Matarese

Hello Ai fans!

Today begins a three week obsession!  I'm suddenly feeling the need to craft with mushrooms!!  I think I know why.  My mom has been ill and I've had my Spring and Summer consumed with helping out with her care. I didn't plant any flowers, create any pots or even buy any hanging baskets.  I have MANY perennial flowers but I think my yard is lacking in color this year. I think this was my escape. Over the next three Sundays you're going to see 3 different cards made with the 5125 – WC Elves Set.

This time I combined the elves set with

5000 – Gotta Garden Set. 
I used the Gnome, the gloves and the garden utensils from that set.

I also used 5133 – Flag Double Stitched Die and 5063 – Rectangle A2 Double Stitched Dies on my card.

Copics used:

E00, E02

Arteza Real Brush Pens:

101, 111, 112, 115, 117, 118, 121, 127, 128,

137, 146, 153, 154, 167, 173, 177, 181, 190

Tropical Watercolor House Two Ways by Jil Lebel

Hello Ai fans!

My father's birthday was last week and I wanted to make him a personal card so I turned to the watercolor series of stamps.  I make a card depicting a house he built here in Florida.  It's not exact, but he knew exactly what it was when I gave it to him.  While I was at it, I made a second card with a few different colors with a similar layout.  The watercolor series of stamps are so versatile!

Use the Square Double Stitched dies to cut out a frame from the watercolor paper.  Color the house from the Mini Cottages set with Chocolate and Deep Blue markers and stamp it off to the right side of the inner square of watercolor paper.  Stamp the house onto Post-It Tape and cut it out before applying the mask over the image.  Apply Dark Jade and Chocolate markers to the palm tree and stamp the it over the house. I used my stamp positioner for both of those images.  Remove the mask and use the #1 brush to pull the color from the stamped lines.  Add extra color to the house with the Deep Blue, Avocado and Chocolate markers. Add Grass and Palm leaves with Dark Jade and Avocado and pull the color out with your #4 brush.  Add some tiny flowers with the Rhodamine Red marker.  Add in the sky with True Blue.

The background uses the Palm Fronds from the Palm Tree set and the tiny flowers from the Mini Flowers set.  Randomly apply the palm fronds using the Dark Jade and Avocado markers.  Fill in the blank areas with clusters of the flowers using the Rhodamine Red and Chartreuse markers.  Use the #4 brush to pull out the color.  Add the scene flat to the upper portion of the background and add the white frame around it with foam tape.  Add a sentiment from the WC Sentiment Set 2 that is cut from the Flag Double Stitch Dies below the framed image.

Thanks for stopping by and Have a Great Day!

You Keep Me Grounded | BFFs By Jessica Shier

Hello Ai Fans!

Today I'm working on some girlfriend coffee scene cards. For these I used the fabulous Coffee BFFs set . Which has a great image of these two ladies and 2 coffee themed sentiments. I wanted to create a simple scene for these ladies and play around with Copic coloring textures, specifically clothing. 

I stamped the Coffee BFFs image on a piece of Neenah 80lb cardstock and used various copic markers to color them in. I do have the list of colors below. One of my favorite patters/ textures to color is leopard print. Which is really easy. I started with a lighter brown (E31)and colored the entire portion of where the animal print will be. Then I used a darker marker (W9) and made squiggly lines, half circles and dots all over. After that I added a bit of color by adding in orange (E34) and yellow (Y13). 

I fussy cut the ladies anywhere that was located above the brown wood and layered a piece of embossed white cardstock underneath. I also used a light gray (C1) marker to enhance the texture of the embossing. 

Using one of the dies from the Flag Double Stitched Die I die cut it using kraft cardstock and stamped the sentiment " you always keep me grounded". I love all the white with the fun splashes of colors in the center! 

Copic Markers Used:

C7, C5, C3, C1

W9, W6, W3, W1, W0

E81, E77, E74, E59, E51, E35, E31

E18, E17, E15, E04

B99, B93, B34

BG18, BG15, BG13, BG09

G94, G43, YG5

Y26, Y13, YR27

RV55, RV52, RV09

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

Dare to be Fabulous by Reneé Matarese

Hello Ai fans! 

Today I'm sharing two cards made with the

AICS05 – Dare to be Fabulous set because...let's face it.  We all love the GIRLFRIENDS!!

This verse is one of my all time favorites.

Inside I used another verse from the set.

I made a second version, which to be honest is my favorite.  My sweet, wonderful friend Char recently had some medical problems. I wanted to cheer her up so I made this version to look like her!

I masked off the top of the Girlfriend's head and then drew in Char's hair.  Also, she NEVER wears dresses or skirts so I used the legs from U4897 – Latte Love.

She does love her accessories though and always has her nails painted so I added some nail polish as well. 

I also darkened up the glasses because hers are black.

There are three of Art Impressions stitched die sets on my card too.

I used

5133 – Flag Double Stitched Dies,

5134 – Banner Double Stitched Dies,

5065 – Oval Double Stitched Dies

Inside of Char's card I used a sentiment from

4903 – WC Sentiments Set

Now for the best part!  Since I cut the skirt off of the fur coat and added the pants and boots my pieces were separate.  I decided it would be fun to put the coat on an action wobble.  It's so CUTE!!

Copics used:

RV17, RV55, B95, B97, T5, C0, N0, N2, BG10,

E000, E02, E15, E50, E97, YR23

Marvy No. 13 ochre

No. 55 Iris Purple

Color Changing Slider with Sweet Easter Set By Jessica Shier

Hello Ai Fans!

Today I'm showing you the slider card I made using the Sweet Easter set in combination with the Slider die. I thought it would be fun to mix it up and make this a color changing slider. Just a few additional cuts made this pretty easy to assemble together. 

To start with I die cut a piece of kraft cardstock with the Art Impressions Slider die. For this you will also need some acetate for the window and Staz-on ink to stamp on that clear slick surface. I trimmed the acetate down to 17/8'' x*4  5/8''. This will fit just inside of the slider so that the edges can be glued. I also used those same measurements to trim a piece of 80lb Neenah Solar white cardstock which is what I stamped and colored the bunnies on. I was going for a robin's egg blue with the shells and added splotches with a white gel pen. 

I used a stamp positioning tool to stamp the bunny images evenly and in the same places on both the acetate and Neenah 80lb cardstock. The acetate I used the Staz-on and on the Neenah I stamped the images with Amalgam ink. Then I started coloring the bunnies on the Neenah cardstock with Copics, colors I used listed below.

For the background I ink blended several Distress Inks over Neenah cardstock in soft spring colors. I blended the Pumice Stone distress ink over the top of the colored cardstock through a stencil that reminded me of a basket weave. One dry I splattered it with the Gansai Tambi Starry Colors watercolor in champagne.

I also did a lot more die cutting. I used a grass border die and colored it green with Distress Ink. The sentiment is from the Sweet Easter set and is die cut with the Flag Double Stitched die, using the double end flag and trimming it to fit. The most die cuts I used is for the polka dot banner. Easily made by die cutting the dotted paper with the second to smallest Banner Double Stitched die 6 times.

I glued the acetate bunnies to the inside top of the slider pocket, centered it with the colored version of the bunnies and attached that underneath. Leaving enough room to for a cut to fit inside which is long enough to grab a hold of to make the slider work. I attached a black piece of ribbon to the end with the tiny attacher stapler. 

Copic Colors used:

C7, C5, C3, C1
W3, W1, W0
E81, E35, E31
BG78, BG15, BG13, BG11, BG10, BG09
B02, B00
G17, YG03, RV11

Alright that is it from me guys! Thank you so much for stopping by today. Happy Stamping!

It's your birthday! by Reneé Matarese

Hello Ai fans!

I only have one thing to say...Where was this awesome little dude when my son was little??  He's 20 now but he was obsessed with dinosaurs between about 2 and 8 yrs of age.  He would have loved this!

The set is called
4950 – Dino Mouthful Set

I also used some Art Impressions dies...

5135 – Hexagon Double Stitched Dies
5133 – Flag Double Stitched Dies

The balloons and dino are all popped up on dimensional
foam to give the card some pop!

I used another image and verse from this set.

All in all there are 7 images and 3 sentiments in the set.

Watercolor Shed by Jil Lebel

Hello Ai fans!

I am always excited when Bonnie comes out with a new line of Watercolor stamps.  I have a hard time trying to decide which one's to get first.  They're always so beautiful.  Once I decide on which stamps I want, I have to decide which image to stamp out first!  Such hard choices! LOL!  I decided on this shed.  I really love the dreamy feel of the image on the package.  I had to make my own little hideaway.

I started with a piece of 4 1/4" x 51/2" piece of Strathmore 140 lb. watercolor paper.  I placed three nested hexagon shapes centered onto the piece of paper and cut them out with my die cutting machine. I ended up with four pieces. I kept them all for my card.

I inked up the shed with 565-deep blue and 969-chocolate and stamped it out in the middle of my smallest hexagon. I then pulled out the lines with a small amount of water from my brush. I added some 493-reflex blue to my palette and added it to the open areas of the roof. I also added it around the sky making sure it was watered down. I added some 725-rhodamine red to my palette and added it to the open areas of the shed.  Next I added 228-Gray Green and 249-Hunters Green to both vines from the new Foliage Set 4 stamp set and stamped them around the roof. Then I added 636-deep blue to the flowers for the Flower Set 1 and stamped it in repeated clusters around the roof and added small amounts of water. I also added the little heart flower cluster from the Mini Flower Set.  I inked it up with the 636-imperial purple. I decorated the bottom of the shed with the tiny grass from the Foliage Set 1 and the grasses from the New Foliage set 4.  I inked them all up with the same two greens I previously used on the roof.  I added small amounts of water to the leaves and pulled the water up from the grass.  The last thing I did was dab some clear wink of stella over the flower images.

I stamped the greeting onto watercolor paper with Nocturne Versafine Claire Ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing ink.  Then I cut it with a flag from the Flag Double Stitched Dies. The watercolor pieced are added to a white, top folding A2 card.I added the image down flat.  I added the next frame with foam tape, but the one next to that one flat.  I mounted the outside frame on foam tape.  The greeting is added flat to the top layer.  I think that the different layers added interest to the card.

Thanks for stopping by and Have a Great Day!

You Rock! Sports Fan Shaker by Reneé Matarese

Hello Ai fans!

Today I'm sharing two interactive birthday cards with you.

My brother-in-law's birthday is in 2 weeks and he's a big sports fan.

His favorite team is the Pittsburgh Steelers so his card was done in black, white and yellow.  My other card (the first one you'll see) was just done in colors I like.

The main image is

4527 – Sports Fan Shaker.

In the corner I used

5133 – Flag Double Stitched Dies

and

5132 – Tag Stitched Dies

On the inside I used

5134 – Banner Double Stitched Dies

to create a frame with can be personalized inside.

Here's the version I made for my brother-in-law.

The foam finger is on a WOBBLE and shakes when you flick it.

Copics used:

Y00, 17, 21

YR15, 16, 20, 21

E00, 02, 93

N0, N2, T3, C7, 100