Top 10 of 2023

 I decided at the last minute to do a top 10 of my favourite projects from this year!  So here they are in no particular order:

February 20th:

February 20th:

February 16th:

April 7th:

March 23rd:

June 1st:

October 27th:

November 24th:

November 5th:

December 3rd:

A mix of products from all of my favourite companies.  As always - thank you for your comments and support throughout the year.  Looking forward to more crafting in 2024!

Karen's Top 5 of 2023

 Hello everyone!

Here we are just days away from Christmas and the end of the year.  I want to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who follows us on the Art Impressions blog, leaves comments or likes on our posts, whether they're on the blog, or on Facebook and Instagram.  Your support and encouragement are very valued!

Now to my Top 5 Art Impressions projects from 2023 - always fun to scroll back and see what I've created this year!  Here are my choices in the order that they appeared:

From February 2nd: 

From June 1st:

From June 29th:

From November 5th:

From December 3rd:

*This last one also happened to be my most 'liked' project of the year!

Wishing you all a lovely holiday season, and a Crafty New Year.

 

Merry Christmas!

 This new-to-me sentiment from Pigment Craft Co. is one I adore!  I made up a few square cards using some Fancy Pants papers that I've had for a while, and added some Pigment holly sprigs to one, and used my Spellbinder's Holiday Blooms diecuts on the other.

December Birthdays

 I have a couple of family birthdays this week, so I pulled out one of the panels I made last summer using the Butterflies stamps and stencils (I made up several extra stamped panels in different colourways - for exactly this reason, to pull out when needed!), and fussy cut out the butterflies.

For this card I used the Diagonal Stitched Plaid Cover die on some aqua cardstock as the base, then die cut the Stitched Scallop Rectangles die in some fine, sparkly silver cardstock.  I glued the butterfly down with a gem for it's head, and added one of the Perfect Sentiments with some 3D foam tape.

My second card uses the Eyelet Cover Die from Pigment Craft Company on aqua cardstock, trimmed to show just a hint of white around the edges.  I die cut the smaller Stitched Scallop Rectangle die from the same glittery cardstock and added another Perfect Sentiment with foam tape.

They're wonderfully sparkly in person!  All supplies are Pinkfresh Studio, except where noted.

Holiday Blooms

 I had die cut a bunch of pieces from my Spellbinder's Holiday Blooms set this fall, and was happy to make some of them up into a card.  I've used a mix of products today: the wood slice is from The Greetery, sentiment & banner are Art Impressions, and the paper is older Simple Stories.

Wonderful Time

I got two final Christmas cards made for 2023 today... although I plan to keep creating, and just add them to my stash for next year.  This is the Wonderful Time stamp set by Anita Jeram for Colorado Craft Company that my niece gifted me this fall!  I have a few of her sets, and really love them.  I pulled out my Copics, which was fun, as I haven't used them much lately.

Merry Stitchmas Trees

If you scroll down on my blog, you'll see a few stitched Christmas tags that I've made with the Spellbinder's Merry Stitchmas kit.  I also made up several different cards featuring some of the dies.  I thought that this three-part tree would lend itself better to being on a card rather than as a tag:

I got six of these made up!  Quick and easy to stitch, and I love them done with the metallic gold thread, and glitter paper as the trim.

Let It Snow

I really do love the snow... from the window of my Craft Room, LOL!  And I'm actually intimidated to paint it - but this year, Bonnie has done some fabulous snowy tutorials, and it's really made a difference for me.  My second project for the Art Impressions Watercolour Weekend, uses the new 5822 Rustic Christmas Set:

I positioned both the cabin and birdhouse from the set on the same block so that I could ensure that I got the perspective right, and that they were both straight - then stamped them on some smooth watercolour paper after colouring them in Tombows #969/565.  I then coloured the larger wreath from 5830 WC Mini Wreath Set in #249, and stamped it on the birdhouse.  After masking off the cabin, I added three trees using 5826 WC Large Tree Set 2 coloured in #249.

I painted a mix of #249/565 on the birdhouse, adding darker areas under the eaves, and then painted the cabin in a mix of #947/969, making the beams darker, and then used my brown Twintone marker to draw in the wood siding.  I didn't want a bright red, so I mixed a little 969 in with my 856 for both the chimney and door, and used N55 for the cement porch.  I hand drew the mountains and walkway, painting both in shades of #565.  I always pick one side of the mountains to be darker, and concentrate my shadows there.  I added in a few shadows on all my snowy areas using #565, and painted it as a wash in the sky.  I used Dr. PH Martin's Bleed Proof White to add snowy touches and to create snowflakes and icicles on the roofs.  I hand drew in the red bow on the wreath with my red Twintone marker, and used a sentiment from 5566 Christmas Sentiments.

I die cut my scene with a 5063 Rectangle A2 Double Stitched Die, matted on some rusty red cardstock to complement the cabin, and then adhered it to my 5853 Christmas Magic paper with some 3D foam adhesive.

December Watercolour Weekend

It's a short month on the Art Impressions blog for the Watercolour Weekend posts, as the blog shuts down for a holiday break later this month.  So Tricia and I are both posting today on the Ai blog.

My card is a twister.  I adore making these!  I've wanted to try this idea for a while...  I started by picking my patterned papers from the new 5812 - Christmas S2 Paper Pack, and used that as my colour palette to paint the front and back images of the snowman from 5815 Mini Christmas Twister Set:

I stamped him using Tombow #N55 (using a grey for a less muddy outline) on some Bristol Smooth cardstock, then painted him in with #312/249/847/N55, and I used my 933 marker directly for his nose.  The dies that are included in the set cut him out so easily!  And they add on the little notch at the top and bottom that fit into the opening for the twister.  I used the 5724 Nested Rectangle Dies to cut out all my background papers, and mounted them onto my card base.

With the smaller (lemon-shaped!) die, I cut the opening for the twister, through all layers of paper (I did trim away a few to make it less bulky).  I cut a frame for the opening out of the same red cardstock for both the inside and outside of my card - I always like to make the inside of the card neat and tidy looking, and glued them in place.  I love the 5072 Block Letters Die Set, and cut the J and Y in red, and a second set in the striped paper from the pack - layering them both for a bit of a shadow effect.  After gluing the back-to-back snowman pieces together, I bent him slightly to fit him into the frame.  I added a sentiment from 5566 Christmas Sentiment Set with some 3D foam adhesive.

I will have another project to share later today.  Check out the Ai blog to see what Tricia is showing this week.

Pigment Craft Co. Merry Christmas

I'm going to date myself, here!  Who remembers these papers from CTMH?  Oh - maybe 10 or 12 years ago.  I had bought them in bulk, and even though I made up 15 of these this week, I still have plenty left.  I paired them with a sentiment from Pigment Craft Co., and added a poinsettia from my Spellbinders Holiday Blooms set.

 

Let It Snow

 I got 8 cards made up yesterday!  Using up some Fancy Pants patterned paper that I've had for a while, along with some Art Impressions snowflakes and a sentiment from Pigment Craft Company.  I pulled the colours from the background paper to make my blue & green snowflakes, and added a little detail using a Crimped Rectangle die from The Greetery.

Tractor card

 Just a quick card that I put together to create a fun scene for a little fella turning 3 (who likes tractors!).  I used the 5596 - Harvest Farm Truck Set from Art Impressions, masked it, and added a gnome from 5785 Gnomes Set as the driver.  Since I wanted to create a little scene, I added the barn, and fence from 5371 - WC Barn Set.  The rest was sketched in with a pencil.

These sets are typically part of the Watercolour line at Ai, but I wanted to be quick and simple, so used Copic markers.  I took a black fineline pen and outlined all of the features that I drew in to balance things out.  I stitched the scene to some black cardstock with my sewing machine, and mounted it to the bright background paper with some 3D foam adhesive.

Christmas Bouquet

Still working on Christmas cards!  I purchased a few sets from Pigment Craft Co. this fall, as I love their style, so made up 8 of these today.  This is Christmas Bouquet Outline stamp/stencil set.  I've used their unique ink colour palette, and added a little sparkle paper and a few gems for some bling.

 

Cooking Up Christmas

 Betsy Veldman creates the most amazing product suites, and the Cooking Up Christmas set from last year is just darling.  I love the slightly retro vibe that the graphic creates, and kept the overall card design pretty simple to show it off.  This is only a 3-part stencil!  But I used several different Distress Oxide Inks on each layer to create my scene.  The coordinating stamp set adds in all the wonderful details like the icing, jar shading and all the fun words.

After stencilling & stamping, I blended some warm brown tones around the edges to age things a little, and sewed my panel onto my card base with my sewing machine.  I'm debating on adding a little Distress Glitter... but will sit on that idea for a bit.  Happy to have 12 of these in my pile of holiday cards!

Merry Stitchmas

 I loved the Spellbinder's Advent calendar that they brought out last year, and when I saw that they'd created a Merry Stitchmas calendar this year, I thought it would be a great time to try stitching on some holiday projects.  I give away a lot of Christmas tags to friends and family with my holiday cards, so I knew this was the thing for me!

                                 

When I was first test cutting out all the dies, I somehow started with this funky colour combo, and just went with it - creating a coordinating set of tags in this teal/pink/kiwi colourway.

I learned pretty quickly that I loved how the metallic gold thread looked, and decided to go with just a single strand.

The ugly Christmas sweaters are one of my favourites in the collection!

I've got a few more of these in the works (I've got 72 tags assembled!), so will do another post soon.