Challenge 262 Coffee Cards WEEK 2! PLUS Fall Stamp SALE! 15% Off Halloween/Thanksgiving Coupon Inside!

Hello, Ai Fans!

We are back with week 2 of our Coffee Cards challenge, but FIRST we are ready to announce the winners of last week's Win It before You Can Buy It giveaway! This lucky winner has won our entire new summer release of stamps! WOW!

The lucky winner is...

Jade Stewart!

Congrats! We have emailed you to congratulate you on your prize and arrange for shipment.

Now, let's see what our design team has made for more cards to inspire your challenge entries this week! You can click the designer's name for more information on their personal blog, and the stamps used are available at artimpressions.com! Let's take a look!

Carol with Coffee BFFs

Crystal with Hot Java Mama

Jessica with Valentine Bears Set

Jil with Sloth-some Set

Niccole with Coffee BFFs

Renee with Office Party Set

Sharon with Spring Chicken Set

If you are coffee lovers like us, then you'll likely have a stash of coffee-themed stamps that would be great for this challenge! Are you more of a tea-drinker (or hot chocolate)? That's okay, you can join us, too! Let's see your creations in this fun challenge! We always love to see what you create!

Here are the Challenge Rules...

✻ 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

Fall is on the way, and many crafters are already starting on Halloween and autumn cards! Now is the perfect time to shop, as Art Impressions is offering 15% off everything in our Halloween & Thanksgiving category! Grab your favorites quick, last day to shop the sale is Monday, August 12!

Shop Here with Coupon Code FALL15

Details: Must enter coupon code FALL15 to receive 15% off items in Halloween/Thanksgiving Category. Valid on retail orders only, not valid on wholesale orders. Not valid on previous purchases. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Expires August 12, 2019 at 11:59 PT.

Happy Stamping!

Hello Spring Chicken by Niccole Kulig

Hello Ai fans!!

I am stopping by today to share a card I made with the Spring Chicken set from Art Impressions!  I just love this set!  It is a lot of fun!

I started by layering my navy card base with a red poppy layer to create a frame. I die cut my green paper and set it aside.

I cut my watercolor paper down so the red paper framed it.  From there I used my ink and stenciled on my clouds.  I love how soft the clouds look when you make them this way. I glued my clouds dow on the red paper and then added the green grass to the bottom.

I colored my chicken with my Copics.  I fussy cut it out and added it to my card. I glued the bottom portion and used foam tape on the top half of the chicken. I figured I would add numerous layer of Wink Of Stella to my springs to make them stand out instead of coloring those tiny areas.  

Here is one more look at the whole card. I finished it off with some colored gems.  I love how easy this card was to make but yet it looks more difficult that it really is. 

Thank you so much for stopping by.  We will see you again soon!

Copics used:

BG000

R22, R24, R27

W00, W1, W3, W5

Y15, Y17

YR04, YR07

Until next time ... Hugs & inky fingers!

Oh Frap by Niccole Kulig

Hello Ai fans!!

I am here today to share a fun card I made using the Spring Chicken set from Art Impressions.  This set is so fun.  

The first thing I did was choose my stamps. I absolutely LOVE this chicken from the Spring Chicken set.  From there I chose my paper. 

I colored my chicken with my Copic markers.  The list of colors I used is at the end of this post. I stamped my sentiment bottom center and I raised my chicken up with foam tape.

I wanted to show a close up so you could see all of the layers used.  There are seven layers of paper to this card.

Here is one more look at the card.  I added Wink of Stella to her glasses and her coffee and steam.  I was going to add Crystal Effects to her glasses but I though the Wink of Stella added just as much shimmer with out the dry time. I had a lot of fun putting this card together.  I even sat and put together a few backgrounds for future cards after all of the measuring. for each layer. 

Copics used:

BG000
C0, C1, C3, C5
E41, E43

R20, R21, R22, R24, R27

W00,

Y15, Y17
YG23

YR04, YR07

Thank you so much for stopping by and spending some time with me.  Please stop back again soon. 

Until next time ... Hugs & inky fingers!

What a bird brain by Sharon Caudle

Hello AI Fans! 

Do you love plain and simple cards?  It doesn't get much simpler than this one!!  I used a scalloped circle die to make the card base, then used AI Double Stitched Circle Dies to make the layers. The stamp is from Spring Chicken Set and I colored her with Copic markers. 

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

Copics used:

E21, E23, E33, E35, E51, E53, E95, E97, E99

G21

B000

T1, T2, T4

R02, R22, R24, R27

O' Frap! Spring Chicken Set | By Jessica Shier

Hello Ai Fans!

With the release of those cute Hedgehogs and adorable Pandas, I decided to explore more of the cute critters in the Funny Farm line of stamps. I chose the Spring Chicken set and also the Oval Double Stitch die. It was not my intention to make the background the shape of a egg but it does work so well! 

I started with stamping the 2 chickens with Gina. K. Amalgam ink then coloring them with Copic Markers. I do have the list of markers I used below. This time I used maily cooled tone grays to match the same tone of the gray cardstock. After I was done coloring them, I fussy cut the pair out and inked the edges with a Memento black marker. 

For my fun egg shape I trimmed a piece of Gina K. Lemon drop cardstock with the Art Impressions Oval Double Stitch die. I believe I used the second from largest. To get the rays I ink blended 

Distress Oxide Ink in Tumbled Glass, through a radiant rays stencil. It didn't quite reach the bottom of the oval. But I easily remedied that with the green cardstock, which was a scrap and already had a curve. I use the same oval die on the green cardstock so that the stitching would continue all the way around. 

I've also been using some colored craft foam to create dimension lately. I cut some of the orange foam with a Art Impressions Circle Double Stitch die and also a darker yellow cardstock. I layered those so that the cardstock was on top and the orange craft foam is only glimpsed from the side. 

I cut two colors of gray cardstock with two different types of edge dies, just to mix it up and add more texture. 

For the sentiment I used a Distress Oxide ink in Abandoned Coral. I love this sentiment, I am not a morning person and only coffee will get me up and going. To create the speech bubble I sketched a oval around the sentiment and added a point. Then fussy cut it out and erased the pencil marks. I popped this up with some foam dimensional squares. 

The inside I used another fun sentiment from the Spring Chicken set, which I paired with the party hat wearing chicken. 

Copic Markers Used:

W6, W3, W1, W0

C5, C3, C1

E77, YG63, B00,

R05, R02,

Y38, Y35, Y21

That's it from me! Thank you for stopping by today. Happy Stamping!

Crystal's Top 10 of 2018!

Hi AI Fans!

Wow I say this every year it flew by so fast I can hardly believe it is almost over. I have enjoyed this year on Art Impressions design team so much. 

I had a really hard time picking my top 10 of 2018:  

See the original post here.

Christmas Bee Set

See the original post here.

My Feet

See the original post here.

Grateful Hearts

See the original post here.

Sparkle and Cheer

See the original post here.

Guinea Pig Out

See the original post here.

Whisk It

See the original post here.

Spring Chicken

See the original post here.

Flamingo Twist

See the original post here.

Sloth Some

See the original post here.

Happy Camper

Enjoy your Holidays and see you next year!  

TWO Clear Sets at a Hobby Lobby Near You! PLUS Challenge 238 Card & Envelope!

Spotted! We have NEW additions to our Hobby Lobby lineup! Our popular Reel Great Guys and Spring Chicken clear stamp sets are hitting the shelves! Grab your favorite Ai Stamps at your local store and share a photo with us on Facebook and Instagram with #AiAtHobbyLobby!

Here's Crystal to inspire your creations with an adorable tutorial!

Hello AI Fans! 

I had so much fun playing with the Spring Chicken Set- AiCS40 for the new challenge this week: Card and Envelope! 

I started with decorating my envelope first. I know it seems backwards I think most people think to make their card and then decorate the envelope as a second thought. I thought the chicken on springs is so cute so I stamped him in the corner of the envelope and stamped the sentiment- "Oh What A Bird-Brain I Forgot Your Birthday!!!" next to the chicken. I made a mask using an all over sticky post-it note. When I masked I cut the springs off of my mask that was to much of a pain to fussy cut and just went over it with the ink.

With a blending tool I added blue ink from the corner of the envelope blending out to the middle so the other half of the envelop was white. I used a textured envelope which had the same feel and look as water color paper so I knew I would want to paint my chicken on my envelope with water color since I planned on making my card with watercolor cardstock.  I was not sure how the envelope would take color so I was very careful to not add to much water. 

To watercolor I just take an acrylic block and scribble some color on from a Spectrum Noir Aqua marker. I paint with a water brush so I don't need a cup of water on my desk and I don't need to worry about spilling it.

I ended up not painting the springs with the blue ink over them I didn't feel it needed to be painted. 

After my envelope was done I stamped the image with the three chickens onto a piece of watercolor cardstock cut to 5 1/4"X 4" with Versafine black onyx pigment ink . Then I stamped the sentiment- "Aging Is Not For Chickens!" below the image. I also stamped the three chickens again on a piece of full stick Stick-it notes. 

  

After I fussy cut my mask I put it over the stamped image. Some of the small pieces I just cut off because the are so small and they can just be painted over and know one will know. After I added the blue ink to the top and brown ink to the bottom I grabbed  a piece of scrap paper and covered the top and misted the bottom with a spray bottle and blotted the water away with a paper towel. I misted the bottom to add some texture to make it look like the chickens are standing on some dirt.  

I pulled my mask off and water colored the chickens. I matted the water colorpaper with some pattern paper attached it to a card base and added a few sequins.  

Thanks for stopping by today I can't wait to see what you come up with for this challenge! 

Thanks, Crystal!

It's time for a new challenge! Whoo! This time it's all about matching cards & envelopes! We cannot wait to see what you come up with!

An InLinkz Link-up

Before we go, let's recognize the winners of last week's Summer Vibes challenge!

Top Spot goes to...

Lorraine!

Congrats, Lorraine! We felt your Girlfriends card really encapsulated the fun of summer! Email annelise@artimpressions.com with your address so we can send you a prize pack!

Honorable Mentions to go...

Katrin!

Charne!

 Congrats, you two! We love Katrin's watercolor scene featuring our retired Ez Project B lighthouse set. The silhouetted people and flying birds are a great touch! And Charne, how adorable is your sliding dog from our Reel Great Guys set! Please email annelise@artimpressions.com with your address and select a stamp set of your choice for a prize!

Thanks for joining our challenge, we'll see you next week! Happy Stamping!