Golden Celebration by Dori Mendiola

 Happy New Year AI Friends!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are off to a fantastic 2025! 

 My card today was inspired by the current challenge "Craft Time is Golden".  I sort of went "all out" golden.  😁  When I started creating, the gold was minimal, then all of a sudden, it went full on gold! Guess you could say it screams New Year's celebration, but wouldn't it be great for a 50th wedding anniversary card or add a little black and make it a graduation card.  So many options.

I used the 5811 - Gift card pocket die set for the bow and the 5722 - Birthday Journal set for the balloons and celebrate word die.  The streamer is from the 5592 - Harvest Journal die set.   I also used the 5063 - Rectangle A2 Double stitched die set for the frame and gift box.  And lastly, I used the 5606 - Harvest Journal PP for the striped pattern paper background.

To make the balloons pop out of the box, I used a slider pull tab and cut a vertical strip in the white frame piece, under the box, for the pull tab to slide.  I adhered a strip of acetate to the bottom of the bow and adhered some balloons on it.  I adhered a pop dot onto the pull tab and placed the pop dot through the vertical slit and onto the bottom of the acetate, so that when you pull the tab the bow rises and the balloons pop up.

Hope you enjoyed my card today.   

Make sure to play along in our blog challenges for your chance to win a free stamp set!

Birthday Man card by Dori Mendiola

 Happy Thursday AI Friends!

I thought I'd share a card that I made for my husband for his birthday.  The image from the #5421 Sit Back Laugh Lines was just perfect for him.  Remote control and all.  😁  This guy is just so cute and funny!

 I stamped the image on copic friendly paper with memento black ink and colored with my copic markers listed below.  I decided to use the pattern paper from the #5606 Harvest Journal PP to paper piece the recliner.  Love the plaid!  I layered pattern pieces with a white strip for the floor board and die cut with the #5062 Rounded Rectangle A2 Double Stitched dies.  I then used the #5724 Nested Rectangle die to cut a center rectangle, creating a frame, to inset the image.  I popped up the "frame" with foam tape.  I also added the wall clock from the #5323 MB Wall Accessories.

This was a simple card but I hope it inspires you to create masculine cards.

Thanks for joining me today!  Have a wonderful day!

Copics used:  E00, E01, E11, E55

B000, T0, T2, T4

Y21, Y23

BG70, BG72, BG75

Thankful! by Reneé Matarese

 What are you thankful for?

I'm thankful for my amazing friends.

One friend in particular made a generous donation to my sister's benefit and I made this pumpkin to thank her.  She likes to decorate her office seasonally and I thought she'd like this for her desk.

I had originally planned to make her a thank you card but I settled on this because it folds flat and she can store it in her desk and pull it out each year.

I've heard that some people didn't realize that Art Impressions is now selling paper.  They come in packs of 24 sheets with 12 unique patterns or 24 sheets with 24 unique patterns.  They're all double sided and so pretty.  I used 5606 – Harvest Journal Paper Pack on my pumpkin.

I tripled up on the Thankful phrase to make it dimensional.

At the time I scheduled this post our LinkDeli was down.

Here are the names and links to everything from Art Impressions that I used.

5592 – Harvest Journal Die Set

5727 – Nested Oval Dies

5606 – Harvest Journal Paper Pack

Life is better by Reneé Matarese

 Hello Ai fans!

Happy Sunday!

Today I'm sharing a card made only with dies.  I love that in the last few years, Art Impressions has added so many fabulous dies to their collection of products.  All Ai products are linked below.



For this card, my paper inspired the color combination.  I started with that and built my card outwards from there.  I almost always choose the stamp I want to use, then the paper, and color the image to match the paper.  In this case, I chose the paper and made all of my die cuts match.

The sentiment came in an unknown paper pad where you cut out sentiments from a large 12 x12 piece of paper.  I don't use these very often and I'm not sure why.  I like what it added to my card. 

I temporarily misplaced the heart die so it didn't make the photo.  Never fear!  I found it around an hour later.  Those darn little dies are buggers to keep track of!  That's why I ordered multiple sets of the journal letter dies.  I'd hate to have an incomplete set of the alphabet.

You're A Fabulous Chick! by Janet

 Happy Saturday Ai fans! I just love the AiCS40-Spring Chicken Set. There are three chicken images and they are all full of attitude. It's hard to pick a favorite but I do enjoy this particular hen. She's definitely got a personality and something to say!

This card is a gate fold with half an oval cut out of each flap. When closed, it appears to be a typical oval window. I used the new 5727-Nested Oval Dies to make the window and the mats inside and out. To keep the card fully closed, I used the 5590-Journal Butterfly Clasp. It works perfectly to make sure the card doesn't open until it's time. The paper comes from the 5606-Harvest Journal Paper Pack. Proof again that the paper packs are not limited to a particular season or holiday even if the pack names suggest that. 

Final touches on this card was the sentiment from the stamp set, gems on the butterfly and a little bit of glitter washi tape.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope you'll stop by the store soon for all your card making needs. 

Wishing you a very crafty day!

Janet - YouTube - Blog - Facebook - Instagram - Pinterest 

O-FISH-ALLY OVER THE HILL! by Reneé Matarese

Hello Ai fans!

Today I have a pair of very similar birthday cards to share with you.

The first will go into my stash.  The second will be given to someone and 

I'll tell you that story in a minute.



Masculine cards are some of my favorite to make and I chose green because when you

don't know what colors someone likes, it seems pretty neutral.  Also, I feel like so many

shades of green are very masculine.
Lol!  As I'm looking at my card I'm wondering just how many shades of green

I packed onto it.



For those of you who don't know, I work in an elementary school.

Our principal is turning 50 on June 15th.  We're celebrating him all day long.

Each grade level from Pre-K through 5th grade has an activity planned to do with him.

I made a card for all of the faculty to sign for him. His favorite thing in the world to do 

is go fishing.  Art Impressions had me covered! 
Enter...5406 – Mr. Set and 4900 – Reel Great Guys Set.

Besides the two main sets I used on this card I used a bunch of other Ai products.

5543 – Journal Template Die Set for the tab with the 50 on it.
5562 – Journal Letter Die Set
5606 – Harvest Journal Paper Pack
5463 – Slimline Dies Set for the mattes and the banner the sentiment is on.
Memento Ink Pad
Sakura Pigma Micron 05 – Pigment Fineliners – 0.45mm I used this to hand draw the sign around the Gone Fishing sentiment.
4773 – Acrylic Block 5 Pack (Variety) to stamp the smaller images and sentiments

In case you missed it...there're still several hours to take advantage of the 40% off Father's Day sale category.

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Hello Friend! by Reneé Matarese

Hello Ai fans!

It's May so we have flowers!

Fabulous Flowers

That's the current challenge here on the blog.



I used several Art Impressions products on my cards.
5444 – MB Garden for the bucket of tulips and sentiment

5096 – HM Garden Set for the little birds

5543 – Journal Template Die Set for the banner

5463 – Slimline Dies Set to cut the designer paper

5408 – ShadowBox Window Die to create the 3-D window

and

5606 – Harvest Journal Paper Pack

I just love how you can mix and match all of the Ai sets.

Their versatility makes them so useful.
I think my card is so cheerful.

One of them will be my friend Rhonda's birthday card.

I colored my birds bright yellow because at this time of year, our goldfinches have just turned back from their winter mustard brown color to their brilliant yellow.  We love to see that because it means the weather is turning nice again.

Copics used:

BG02, G20, G82, YR21, R81