WILD about the ocean! by Reneé Matarese

 Hello Ai fans!

Welcome to my Wild About You post.
For the current Bi-Weekly challenge, we want to see your projects using
wild animals or animal prints on them.

For my wild animals, I chose to use ocean creatures.

The sub and animals are from 5397 – Submarine Cubbies.

With a finger sponge dauber I used several shades of green pigment

ink to sponge a watery background.

The matte around the sponged panel was cut using 
5063 – Rectangle A2 Double Stitched Dies.
Though you can't see it in the photo, the creatures all have Wink of Stella on them.

One great thing about this set is that it comes with coordinating dies so you don't have to fussy
cut all of those little critters. The sub also has a die which cuts out some of the windows

in case you want some of your cute little creatures swimming in and out of it.

I hope this has inspired you to get in touch with your WILD side.

You can win a free stamp set if you're selected as one of our 2 winners!

Snowman Thank You by Reneé Matarese

Happy Tuesday everyone!

 It's February and still VERY much winter where I live.

I needed a thank you card and pulled out some fairly new sets and also used a
 BRAND NEW die from the 5811 – Gift Card Pocket Dies.

This smiley little snowman is a front and back so he can be used in window cards as well. I used Dr. Ph Martin's white paint to add details to his clothing.  This paint is AMAZING and so versatile.

All Art Impressions products that I used are linked below.

Copics used:

R00, R02, R37, R81, E31, E40, BG0000

BG02, BG34, W3, W4, N2, N4

Gone Fishing Card by Nina

 Hello Ai fans, Nina here with a bright fun card using the cutest Ai Sport Shelf throwback set and Stitched Rectangle and Stitched Squares Die Sets.

I chose the fishing image from the Sport Shelf set and stamped it using my Mini Misti and Tuxedo Black ink and then colored it using my Copic Markers.

I then cut all around my images and backed them with foam tape.

I also cut a strip of paper and colored it with Copic brown shades to be a shelf under my image.

I used Stitched rectangle dies to cut the background from a striped bright pattern paper and used stitched square dies to cut a small square to place under my image to define it against the colorful background.

I attached the square to the striped background and then attached my large image on top and the image of baits hanging from the square.

I then used alphabet stickers to write my sentiment "Let's Go Fishing"

I placed the whole panel on a slightly larger white paper.

Birds on an Arbor by Reneé Matarese

 Hello Ai fans and Happy Sunday!

Today I have a trio of cards to share.

Two of them are Mother's Day cards for my mom and mother-in-law.
The third is a "just because" card.

We'll start with that one.

I created my card with the current Don't Fence Me In challenge
going on HERE on the Ai Blog.

Links for all of the sets are here and at the bottom.

5363 – WC Arbor Dies
5346 – Birdhouse Cubbies Set
5742 – Easter Journal Paper Pack
5336 – Garden Mini Dies
5136 – WC Sentiment Set 2
5317 – MB Template Dies
5063 – Rectangle A2 Double Stitched Dies
5592 – Harvest Journal Die Set
4773 – Acrylic Block 5 Pack (Variety)
Memento Ink Pad



This is my mother-in-law's card and it's an A2 size with not too 
much dimension since it has to be mailed to Florida and I know 
my husband would rather just pop it in the mailbox instead of 
driving to the post office because he's really busy with work right now.

This one is my mom's.  I used the scraps from the other card and popped 
her main panel up since I'll be delivering hers in person.

It was actually my mother-in-law that inspired these cards.  They visited us last 
summer and she spent a lot of time bird watching at our feeders.  She was fascinated
with them and rightfully so.  We have some beautiful birds. 

Copics used:

G20, G82, BG02, R81, YR21

Lime Green Twin Tone

Have a great weekend everyone!

Butterfly Thank You card by Reneé Matarese

 Hello Ai fans and happy Sunday!

I needed a thank you card for a friend that gave me a handmade piece of art she found at a craft show. She said it reminded her of me and when she prayed for me when I was sick.

She's a very spiritual person so I know she'll love this set. 
I used 5200 – Butterfly Set.

On the inside I used 5590 – Journal Butterfly Clasp.

Since the butterfly is split in half, I used some little gems to cover the seem.

I used two different patterns of paper from 5742 – Easter Journal Paper Pack.

The matte was made using 5063 – Rectangle A2 Double Stitched Dies and the sentiment was stamped and then cut out with 5727 – Nested Oval Dies.

I only glued down the butterfly's body on each one.

Then, I bent and popped up the wings to give the card some dimension.

Happy Birthday Down Under! by Reneé Matarese

 Hello Ai fans!

Today I'm sharing a birthday card that I made for a friend all the way in Australia!

I made a second card, slightly different, because Michelle deserves a one of a kind card!

I used the 5349 – Koalas Set from the Funny Farm series.

These koalas are just so darned cute and come with several fun sentiments.
I framed the main image with 5063 – Rectangle A2 Double Stitched Dies.

I also made a graduation card using the 5277 – Graduation Set.

My son's college colors were black and gold so the giraffe was perfect.

I cut the sentiment on the front of the card using the 5133 – Flag Double Stitched Dies.

Copics used on Koala cards:

YG07, YG17, N0, N2, T4, R01, R85, Y13, Y18, Y19, Y26

LePen 0.3

Copics used on Grad card:
E81, N0, R81, T3, E33, E87, BG000, BG01

Birthday Buggy Graduation and Birthday cards by Reneé Matarese

Hello Ai fans!

Today I'm sharing two cards that I made using 5455 – Birthday Buggy set from the new
Ai Rides series.

Our daughter just graduated last Saturday with her Bachelor's in Fine Arts. I used the 5502 – Craft Bag and Die Set. She has two more years to go to student teach and take all of her teaching classes because she wants to be a high school art teacher at which point she'll have her Master's Degree.

She'll be certified K-12 and is going to look into what else she'd need should she decide to teach at the college level.



She attended SUNY Oswego and their colors are green and gold.  She drives a Jeep now but her last car was a VW Beetle so I knew these sets were the perfect match to make a card for her.

I used the 

5133 – Flag Double Stitched Dies on the sentiment which came from 5277 – Graduation Set.

While I had those stamps out I decided to make a birthday card to add to my stash!
The verse is from the Hobby Lobby 5477HL Interchangeable Car Set exclusive.

The gift boxes in the corner of both cards are from the  Hobby Lobby set too.

This set is so fun and it just makes me smile!

Copics used:

RV0000, RV04, RV63, Y00, Y08, Y11, Y26, B02, B05,

G03, G05, E30, N2, C0, C8, T4, W1

Silver and white gel pen.