NEW Watercolor Sets NOW Available! PLUS, Challenge 265 Watercolor Stamping!

Watercolor enthusiasts rejoice! We have FIVE new Watercolor sets available today at artimpressions.com! Bonnie's newest favorite is our WC Shoe Set, featuring footwear from baby to antique boots, which you can fill with your flowers and foliage. As we draw closer to the holiday season, Bonnie created a WC Winter Kids Set, with the littles dressed in their snow gear and one even giving a hug to a snowman. Use your critters or kids sets with our new WC Swing Set for nostalgic outdoor scenes. For our southwest friends, we included a WC Desert Set featuring cacti, an adobe house, tall grasses, rocks, and twigs. You can also use the WC Mountain Set plateaus with our Desert Set, or add a snowy mountain in the background of your watercolors! The possibilities are endless! Watch the video below, as Bonnie introduces the summer release and all her favorite details. You can add all five sets to your collection at artimpressions.com!

Let's take a look at what the designers have created today! Remember, you can visit the designer's blog or social media by clicking the pink links by their name - and give them a follow while you're there for more inspiration in your feeds!

Dot Freel - Instagram - Blog - Pinterest

 
Hello Friends,

Have you seen Art Impression's brand new stamps 5194 - WC Shoe Set? There are 6 different shoes! I actually had these little white leather shoes for all three of my sons, long ago, when they were babies. Some people even had them bronzed and mounted on a plaque. I stamped the shoes in two colors, first the 969 then the 565. I stamped them off on scratch paper first and then pulled the color out of the lines. I added the foliage from the 5126 - WC Foliage Set 4 in 177 and 249. I stamped the longest ones in 105 lt. teal for the girl card and in 993 for the boy card. I stamped the heart flowers from the 4868 - WC Flower Set 2 in 725 for the girl card and in 526 for the boy card. I used 565 to paint the shadows under and on the shoes. I stamped the shoe again in random orientations all over the background using Memento grey ink. I stamped the long stem flower all over both cards as well. I used the 5072 - Block Letters Die Set to cut out the words "girl" and "boy" and ran the letters through a Xyron Create-a-Sticker. I used the 5063 - Rectangle Double Stitched Dies to cut out the background pieces and the watercolored pieces to complete my cards.

Karen Day - Blog - Facebook - Pinterest

I had the idea to combine these two sets on my projects, so decided to use the tire swing from 5195 WC Swing Set, the mountains from 5198 WC Mountain Set, and created a scene around them. I first sketched out my idea on scrap paper to determine exactly where I wanted things to be - nothing worse than being half way through a scene like this, and stamping your mountains too high! It also helped me determine that my tree swing would be up on a hill overlooking a lake and the mountains beyond. I started by diecutting my Canson XL watercolour paper with the 3 3/4" x 5" Rectangle Double Stitched Die, and I sketched in my tree with a pencil. Using #N45 Cool Grey 10, I coloured and stamped the tire, and then masked it. With my stamp positioner, I placed the little girl from 5053 WC Little Girls Set, coloured in #992 Sand. With my #1 paintbrush, I added #850 Flesh to her skin, and #899 Redwood to her hair. With the fine point of the #992 marker, I added short sleeves to her t-shirt. #565 Deep Blue was painted as her jeans, and after adding more water to it, I used it to add shadows. I added several layers of the N45 to the tire to build up the colour, creating it darker on the underside of it. Next I stamped the mountains, after colouring them with 2nd generation #565, and a layer of #533 Peacock Blue over top. I used my damp #4 paintbrush to soften the lines and pull out the colour to add shading to the mountains. I painted in the hills in front of them, and the lake - pulling the colour from my palette, and used a light wash for the sky. I used my Twintone marker in #41 Chocolate to outline my tree, and added a few texture lines to the trunk. I painted shades of #969 Chocolate over the entire tree, keeping it darker on the undersides of the branches, and added #565 as shadows. With the large leafy image from Foliage Set - 4051 coloured in #158 Dark Olive, I added greenery on either side of the swing, and softened it by dabbing with a damp brush. I also used the Jumbo Grass stamp with #158 stamping it multiple times, then using the colour from them to paint a suggestion of a grassy bank. I picked up #992 from my palette and painted in the shore line around the lake. And finally, to add leaves to the trees, I used the larger leafy image from 4867 - WC Foliage Set 2 New. Oh - and the last step was to use a fine point grey marker to draw in the chain of the tire swing. I matted my image with a light kraft cardstock, and used pop dots to mount it on some textured dark grey cardstock.



Tricia O'Bin - Blog - Instagram - YouTube - Pinterest - Facebook

First I inked up the entire cactus from the NEW Desert Set with 126. I then added some 249 to just the areas I wanted to be a little darker. I stamped it towards the bottom right hand side. Next, I masked it off, re-inked it with the same colors and stamped it to the left of the first one but down a little. I pulled the color out of the lines. 

I inked up the southwest house with 969 and stamped it to the left of the cacti close to the middle of the paper. I masked it off and stamped the Large mountain from the NEW Mountain Set inked with 969. I also used the same smaller mountain inked in 969 and stamped it a little up and to the right. I wanted it to appear to be further back. I pulled the color out of the lines, making sure to leave white highlights. I pulled some additional color underneath the mountains to give them some depth.

I added some 565 to my palette and added it between the mountains for a small river flowing between the mountains. I added 969 to my palette and added some additional ground around the river and darkened beneath the mountains. I added some 969 and 847 to the small grass and stamped it on either side of the house. I pulled the color up and out of the lines. I added water to the house making sure to make the left really dark. I pulled color out of the lines around the house. I continued to add 969 from my palette to create more ground.

I added some 969 to the small rocks and placed them to the left in the white space. I pulled the color out of the lines making sure to leave a highlight. I added some pink to the cactus and added water. I replaced the mask on the cactus, inked up the other cactus in the set with 177 and using my positioner stamped it to the right of the cactus. I pulled the color out of the lines and added some additional 126. I added the small cactus near the rocks and pulled the color from the lines. Using my fine tip, I added some dark shadows beneath the house and softened them with water. I continued to add 969 and 847 to the ground.

Finally I used some 565 watered down to create clouds in the sky. Lastly, I signed it.

Thanks, team! Your projects are so inspiring and fun to see in your unique styles!

For our new challenge, we want to see you try watercoloring stamping! You can watercolor the art impressions way or another watercolor stamping technique, we can't wait to see!

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

Before we go, let's recognize the winners of last week's Gotta Gingham challenge!

Top Spot goes to...

Reeta!

Congrats, Reeta! We love your Perfect Duet singing on this easel card with pretty pink and red gingham paper! Such a sweet anniversary card! Email annelise@artimpressions.com with your address to claim your prize pack!

Honorable Mentions go to...

Mary Ann!

Helen F!

 Congrast, you two! Mary Ann, we love how you created a nostalgic card with your class WC Truck image! Thanks for joining us in class at Scrapbook Expo! And Helen, we love your blue-toned gingham with this snowy scene with our retired Whoots set! Too cute. Email annelise@artimpressions.com with your address and a stamp set of your choice!

We hope to see your entires and more in our new challenge! Have an awesome weekend!

Happy Stamping!

Watercolor Throwback - Birch Trees Video

Hello Ai Fans!

Bonnie and Kate are back from our most recent trade show, so this week we are throwing back to a beloved video from September 2016! We wanted to feature this Birch Trees video, as it is a great example of scene building and how to create a forest scene.

Bonnie created this beautiful birch tree scene with stamps from our new Covered Bridge set! You will love how Bonnie creates rolling hills and a small stream by grabbing color from her Watercolor Palette. You will add dimension with multiple colors of leaves and shrubs, all only using 4 stamps!

We absolutely love it when you leave us a comment over on YouTube! Hop over there and let us know what you love about this tutorial. We appreciate you watching and a big thank you to everyone sharing such kind feedback on our videos!

Happy Watercolor Wednesday!

View on YouTube: https://youtu.be/WFqPlMKaAlA

4808 - Covered Bridge Mini Set	Blooming Birdhouse #4603	WC Foliage Set	Strathmore Watercolor Paper	Watercolor Brush #4	Ai Watercolor Palette
1" Square Acrylic Block	1.5" Square Acrylic Block	3" Square Acrylic Block	Acrylic Block Variety 5 Pack	#15 Olive Green	#25 Bottle Green
#45 Sepia	#50 Ultramarine	#72 Pine Green	#86 African Violet

InLinkz.com

Happy Birthday Sloth Flip Card By Jessica shier

Hello Ai Fans! 

I wanted to create some flip cards this month. The first one I'm going to show you is this Happy Birthday design using the sloth flip card set, which I paired with the Flip card die. 

I used various Copic markers (list below) to color in the sloths. Stamping both the front and back on to Neenah 80lb Solar White card stock.  I kept the shading simple and used a very limited amount of markers. I've said it before, but I love the full colored packaging of Art Impressions stamps because it gives you such a great example of how to color and shade! 

Once I was done coloring I fussy cut both of the sloth images out. I decided on a easy watercolor background using a Everyday Tintable from Concord and 9th. These have a emboss resist background pattern and I chose the herringbone for this card. I got out my Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolor set and used several of the paints to create this blue to green gradient wash background. 

While that dried, I used the Flip card die and followed the easy directions on the back of the packaging, to create a Neenah 110lb Solar White card base. I accidentally scored all the way across the card base instead of just the areas around the flip portion. Luckily it didn't cause any issues, with this design. The Sloth Flip Card set also comes with some fun sentiment stamps but this time I used the die words from the Flip card die set for the Happy Birthday, I die cut those using black card stock. Before I adhered the Happy die cut, I scored a piece of light gray card stock that is trimmed to cover the flip portion of this card. This gave it a decorative border and added some interest. It also helped to conceal the score mark. 

I trimmed a portion of the watercolor background down and saved the strip for the inside. I adhered the large portion of that to the front of the Flip card. Then attached the sloths over top, positioning them so it looks like they are holding up the Happy! I did the same for the backside of the sloths and the small strip of watercolor. I also used the black Kuretake watercolor paint to add some shadows to where the sloths are sitting.  

Copic Markers Used:

E77, E74, W3, C1

E31, E35

Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors:

50 Pale Aqua

57 Turquoise Green

52 Ocean Green

20 Black

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

Watercolor Succulents by Carol Hintermeier

Happy Monday Ai fans!

My card today features a watercolored card using the beautiful Succulents Set.  I just used four of the stamps for my card, but there are several more stamps in this awesome set!

I used Canson Watercolor paper and my MISTI to stamp a few of the succulents from the set into a background pattern.  These were stamped with Versamark and heat embossed in white.  A couple weekends ago I was so happy to be at an event and took a class where I learned to used Ken Oliver's Color Bursts to watercolor.  I used four colors to watercolor the succulents.  I did the background first though, so I could see the images better.  I used a Tombow marker in Willow Green for that.  In order to see the large succulent's petals better, I did a light wash of green over the entire plant (2nd photo below).  Here are a couple of my "in progress" photos.

   

I've listed the colors I used below, but really, after doing a web search for succulents, you can use just about any nature-y color you want!  I tapped out a bit of the powder onto my Watercolor Palette and added just a drop or two of water.  This is key as you don't want to over dilute the color.  These are highly pigmented and I would pick up a dab of color with my brush and dilute it as needed off to the side.  Once everything was dry, I used a stitched square die to cut the panel out and used double-sided tape to adhere it to a 5-3/4" x 5-3/4" card base.  I used 110# Neenah Solar White for the card base since the watercolor panel is heavier too.

I stamped the sentiment from the WC Sentiments Set with Versafine Onyx Black and die cut it with a die from Flag Double Stitched Dies.  I used some foam squares to pop it up and scattered a few clear dewdrops from my stash across the card.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  Have a wonderful, crafty week!

Ken Oliver Color Burst colors:  Sap Green, Fuchsia, Prussian Blue

My Favorite Things/Ken Oliver Color Burst colors:  Jellybean Green, Tropical Teal

Tombow watercolor marker:  #173-Willow Green