Masculine Birthday

 I made a belated birthday card for my brother-in-law this week.  This is a retired image from Art Impressions, but it fits Miles perfectly!  I made a 4 1/2" square card using some Graphic 45 papers.  The sentiment is stamped onto one of the die cuts from the new Art Impressions Journal dies - I love the dimension it adds!

Happy Anniversary

 It's our 28th Anniversary today!  I made a card for my husband, using some One Canoe Two paper, and some Tim Holtz mini Blueprint images.  I really love how the rose gold metallic paper looks with the muddy blue of the background papers.

Anyone else miss the Blueprints??  I will continue to use them as often as I can!

For Glitzy

 A special card for one of my daughter's friends, who is turning 25 this week.  This is one of the Art Impressions freebie stamps that you can get when you order $30 or more from the Ai website (last year's image).  Piggies have a special meaning for this friend, so I made a cute little 4 1/4" square card.

The image is coloured with Copic markers, and I drew the party hat on myself.  The balloon is from the 29 Again stamp set, that I cut out and mounted with foam tape.  I tied a piece of black thread to the balloon, and then attached it to his tail.  For a little glimmer, I added Wink of Stella to the balloon, party hat and his snout.  Happy Birthday, Glitzy!

You're a Great Friend

 Ever had a card sitting unassembled on your desk for a really long time??  I'm sure I stamped this one over a year ago, and it's been shuffled around my craft room many a time.  So I finally just got it done!  Not sure why it took so long, but I played around with the layout a fair bit.  Stamps are Fleur by The Greetery and Pinkfresh Studio for the sentiment.  Background stencil is also the Greetery - and Distress Oxide Inks were used all 'round.

Even though this isn't the best photo, I wanted to show the gold embossed sentiment, and the circle is a lovely matte gold colour.

And more Popsicles...

 Another version!  I made two of these tonight, using a Taylored Expressions Cover Plate as a mask to ink blend some Speckled Egg Distress Oxide Ink on my background, and then spattered it on top.  I kept the colours a little softer, and added a pink sentiment.  Happy with these!

The fruit, leaves and sentiment are "Fruity" from the Pigment Craft Co. and the popsicles are from Stampin' Up.

Could you be any Sweeter?

Such a sweet sentiment!  I am using Fruity and it's matching dies from Pigment Craft Co., along with a whole bunch of Distress Oxide Inks in some fun blends.  The popsicles are an older Stampin' Up set, and I dug out some embellies from my stash:

I layered the Sweeter die a couple of times to give the die cut some dimension, and ink blended my card base with a cut out rectangle mask for a little background interest.

Sandcastle building

 I've created a summery scene for the Watercolour Weekend this Saturday on the Art Impressions blog, featuring 5118 - WC Beach Girls Set, and 5119 - WC Beach Boys Set:

Using my stamp positioner for placement, I stamped the little boy and girl on my Canson XL Watercolor Paper using #992, and sketched in the shape of a sandcastle between them, along with the shoreline and horizon.  I built up their skintones using layers of #850, and painted his hair with #969, and hers with #850, then #947 overtop to give her a reddish/strawberry blond look, leaving the crown of each head very pale on top where the sun would hit.  His suit was painted with #569, and hers with #993/055.  #977 was painted in as the sand, with several darker layers on the castle, and around the figures.  I mixed #493 and #569 to create the darker water shade, and then used just #493 to paint in the sky.  #245 added a pop of bright green to the bucket.

I used #565 to add shadows in the sand, then used the fine point of a grey marker to slightly darken the outline of the children, and to draw in the little flag and the bucket handle.  I die cut out my scene and mounted it with 3D adhesive onto my patterned background. Check out the blog on Saturday to see what Dot & Tricia have to share, and be sure to follow Ai on instagram to see everything from the Design Team.