Renee's Top 10 of 2025

 Hello Ai fans!

2025 is rapidly coming to a close so it's time for me to share my Top 10
Design Team projects of the year.

These are in no particular order.

Keep your head up

Hi Friend!

Birdie Betty-Ready for a Round!

Snowflake JOY card for LEON

I Find You Ribbiting

Snowman Puppet

In the Navy!

Welcome to Art Impressions Frankie!

Warmest Wishes

Winter Birthday

It's been another wonderful year at Art Impressions!

I've enjoyed every new stamp, die, paper, paint and more!

Check back in the new year for new challenges and a new feature!

Wild About You Challenge Week #2

 Hello Ai fans and welcome to week #2 of our

Wild About You challenge!

Our challenge is to use wild animals or animal prints on your projects. Our Design Team are

clearly animal lovers and they all went that route, but you are welcome to use animal prints as well.

They came up with some beautiful cards to help get you in the mood to play along. We love

seeing your artwork and can't wait to see what you create.

Last week our Featured Designer was Lynn and she created 3 fabulous bookmarks.

Dori spent some Koala-ty Time on her card.

Janet's fall card features a sweet little bird.

Janet

6017-Baby Panda Set
5064- Circle Double Stitched Dies

Gennette got a little foxy for her card.

I went deep under the sea for my card.

Sharon has 2 cute pelican cards.

Tasha has a fun Halloween card.

Lynn also created this adorable fall card.
Visit her post for the tutorial video.

Week after week our Design Team works hard to inspire you for our challenges

We hope that you love their work as much as we do and will play along with our challenges.

You might be the next lucky winner of a free stamp set.

Be sure to enter your creation for the chance to win a free stamp set from Art Impressions. 

We award one Top Spot and one Lucky Random Winner, and each will win a free stamp set from Art Impressions.

✻ Please make a new card or handmade crafty creation. You can make any item you wish; this is not limited to cards! (unless specified)

✻ Limit two submissions per person.

 ✻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

Fox Hollow and Country Cottage by Gennette Houghton

 

Welcome to Watercolor Weekend, and thank you for joining me today! I absolutely love Kim’s fox set that she designed, it is such a beautiful set.  

I started out by tracing the inside of a 3 inch circle die on watercolor paper, and then used the inside of the wreath die that is from my stash to trace in some guidelines.  I then took the largest fox that is lying down from KH5951 Foxes set in N49 and stamped off once before stamping on my project.  I used a black micron on the eyes and nose before I started coloring in the fox.  Using Tombows, I like to start with 025, to me if gives an underglow to the image.  I then added in 993 going over most of it but leaving a touch of the 025 showing in the areas that are the most highlighted.  I then go in layers with 946, 947 and 969.  As each color gets darker the closer I stay to the more shaded areas of the image, with the 969 being the darkest areas. I then shaded the white tip of the tale with 565 and added some Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleed Proof White to highlight areas to give contrast.  I put a wash of color on the ground in 177, using 249 to shade under the fox.  526 was used for the sky at this point.  

5826 WC Large Tree Set 2, which has my favorite grass to use in scenes like this, was inked in 177 with just a touch of 969 in 2 spots at the base of the grass. Then using 5126 WC Foliage Set 4, I used 126 and then used 177 in a line right up through the middle of each section on the leafy branch.  I find that adding the 2 colors right on the stamp gives a beautiful, more organic look to the colors.  I then added a touch of water to both the grass and the leaves to soften and blend the colors.  

For the leaves added into the wreath, I die cut them out of mixed media paper and colored them with 126 and shaded with the 177.  I erased all of the pencil lines and added in BPW for the tiny flowers in the grass. Now that everything is dry, I assembled the wreath first, then matted my card base with a beautiful 2 toned paper from 6033 Inspirational Easter Paper Pack. I couldn’t decide on some color cardstock for my sentiment so I created my own with mixed media paper and 126.  I then stamped the sentiment from 5980 KH Song Birds and Feeders Set in black ink, then die cut it with a banner from 5133 Flag Double Stitched Dies.  I then finished assembling my card to create a cute fox hollow card perfect for a friend.  

For my second card I used 5930 Santa’s Workshop Set. I love it when a stamp can be used in different ways. I love this building and I could see it in a country setting.  I inked it in N49 and stamped off once, I also created a mask out of 2” post-it tape. Before adding color, I used a pencil and ruler to map out my grid lines for the windows, and lines on the door. For the walls I used 177, concentrating darker color in the areas that are shaded. I left the inside wells of the windows unpainted until after the windows were finished so I wasn’t drawing the green color into the panes.  For the windows I used 772, going right over the top of the pencil lines, and also using those lines to add a bit of more color to help single out some of the panes of glass, shading the panes with 565.  I then used 947 on the roof, door and trim. With 969, I darkened some of the deeper shaded areas, especially on the roof.  For the chimney, I started with a mix of 565 and 969, making sure I left highlights on the stone. 565 was used to create a shadow where the chimney is closest to the house, and then added some 249 to add a bit of color.  969 was used to darken the areas where the stones meet.  For the porch, 565 and 969 mixed, was also used with 565 for a shadow right in front of the door. I then went over the pencil lines on the windows and door with 947, adding 969 to the door knob. I then went over the window and door wells with a dark layer of 177, to give them the appearance of being inset. 565 was used to shade under all of the overhangs.  

I put my mask in place, and with 5826 WC Large Tree Set 2, I put in the trees around the house.  For the tree on the right I used a stamp positioner to create a taller tree. I stamped in the top part first with 177 and 969, then used the positioner and just inking the bottom half of the stamp lined it up with the top image.  For the sky I used 526, and added a wash of 249 for the ground, I also added a bit of 177 around the base of the trees.  Right in front of the porch I added a touch of 969 for a hint of a path.  For the grass by the trees I used 4051 Foliage Set 1 in 249, the grass by the porch is from 5372 WC Mini Foliage Set.  Using the Mini set and the bush line I added in flower bushes in 725, inking only a small section of the stamp. I then softened all of these with a bit of water.  The bottom, to me, looked a bit empty, so I used the 2^nd largest die from 5063 Rectangle A2 Double Stitched dies and traced inside the two bottom corners for a guide and taped off with post-it tape. The grass from 5826 WC Tree Set 2, is my favorite to use, I inked it in 177, and in two small spots, just at the base with a touch of 969. Re-inking the stamp as needed as I went across the bottom.  I added, with 249 and the small vine from 5126 WC Foliage Set 4, some leaves in several spots, I also used a branch in 969 from 4964 WC Branches Set for added interest.  Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleed Proof white was used for the flowers, and a spot of 025 for the centers on the bottom flowers.  After removing the tape, I erased all of the pencil lines. My card was matted with paper from 5955 Encouragement Paper Pack.  With the die I used as a guide, I cut out my image and matted it with matching cardstock.  Thank you for joining me today, and I hope you enjoyed my cards.  Until next time, Create….Share….Inspire!

Foxes & Wild Buck Foundation by Karen Day

 Hello Ai Watercolour fans!

Since fall is such a short season for card makers... now that it's August, I'm sharing my first fall cards!  This is the 6067 - Wild Buck Foundation.

I coloured the image with Tombows #969/565 and stamped it onto my Canson XL Watercolour Paper.  After pulling out the colour with a damp brush, I started by adding a wash of #493 to the water and sky, and adding shades of #969/899 to the tree.  I used the warm brown #947 to start adding layers of colour to the deer, keeping it lighter on his back and under his belly.  Now that my main elements were defined by at least a first layer of colour - I found it easier to plan the rest of my painting.  I used #991/126/177 to paint the grassy hill areas, wanting them to look a little faded/dry like they would in the fall.  I wanted my cabin to look like cedar shakes, so I painted it with #N49, and used 969 to give it wood trim.  I used a pencil to sketch in the suggestion of the shakes.  #837 was painted on the roof, and the windows were shaded with #565.  The rocks were painted with #N49, and hints of the browns used in the scene.  #899 was used for the deer's antlers, and to add some darker areas on his legs.

I used the small twig cluster stamp from 5059 - WC Harvest Set to stamp in the shrubs around the cabin and rocks.  Then with the foliage stamp from 5372 - WC Mini Foliage, I added the leaves in #993 and 837.  The small grass from Foliage Set - 4051 was stamped in #992 to add dry looking grass to the scene.  One of the trees from 5010 - WC Tree Set 1 was stamped to add a pine tree beside the cabin in #247.  To finish things up, I used #565 to paint the edges of the stream, and to add shadows where needed - especially on the mountains, rocks and the darker sides of the cabin.

I die cut my scene with the A2 Stitched Rectangle dies, and used 3D foam adhesive to adhere it over a brown mat, onto my subtle plaid paper from 5606 - Harvest Journal PP.  I wrapped some plain twine around the card base several times.

My second project features the KH5951 - Foxes Set.

I stamped the fox and stump from the set in #N49 onto my Canson XL Watercolour paper, masking the fox so that the stump would appear to be behind him.  I painted shades of #947 on the fox, along with N47 on his paws.  Using several browns - #992/969/899, I painted streaks of colour on the stump.  Masking both the stump and the fox, I used both ferns from 5830 - WC Mini Wreath Set coloured in three colours - #076/126/373 which gave them an interesting appearance!  The two leafy stems from 5476 - WC Foliage Set 5 were also added, being coloured up in #373/565.  The Daisy Bunch stamp from 4052 - Flower set were stamped repeatedly in #991/703 to add some two-toned flowers along the ground. 

 After touching everything with a damp brush to pull out the colour, I added the small grass from 4051 - Foliage set in #126, then did a wash with it on the ground.  #565 was painted in as the sky, and used to add shadows under the fox and stump.

My scene was die cut with the Stitched Oval die, and added to my base with a brown mat.  The background paper is from 5973 - Fall S2 PP.  For a little extra decoration, I added multi colour die cut pieces from Spellbinders Holiday Blooms, a wax seal and a few gems.  Hope you'll pull out those fall sets and get painting!

Keep your head up by Reneé Matarese

 Hello Ai fans!

Welcome to my second Highlights Challenge card post.

This time I have a sweet fox card.

She fit nicely in this frame with the exception of her tail so I used some scissors to trim up either side of her tail so that I could slide the frame under it. This way, the frame cuts around her but doesn't cut her tail off.

Once she was die cut, I created a mask for her. I splattered gold paint around her to give it some shimmer.

I also tried my hand at making a wax seal to go on my card. It started out being three colors to match lil miss fox. Unfortunately, it took me about 7 tries to get one I was happy with, therefore it wound up being one solid color. I really liked this color with the fox so this one was a winner.

This was one I wasn't initially happy with but the organic look is growing on me.

While I had my supplies out, I decided to try another snowflake that I have. I liked this one on the first try and it's stashed away for another day.

I watched a video that said keeping your wax supplies iced during the process helps the wax release easier. It seemed to really work for me so I'll continue to do this in the future.

I added some sentiments and more foxes to the inside of my card. I liked the "keep your head up" verse because of the image on the front.

I thought it would be sweet to place a tiny snowflake on her nose. My snowflakes all have some Diamond Stickles on them to give them some snowy sparkle.

My card was made for the current Highlights challenge. You can enter your crafty project using a white gel pen or white paint for the chance to win a free stamp set from Art Impressions.