Twinkle in a Tangle

  Today I'm sharing what I'm calling an "Opening Easel Card" - using Art Impressions' brand new Square Easel Die (Sku #4699), and Twinkle in Tangle (Sku #4665).  Here is a photo of it, tied shut:

 I started by cutting two easel die pieces in blue cardstock with my Cuttlebug.  Then using washi tape to hold together two circle dies, I cut out a circular blue frame:

I added some patterned paper to the front of one easel piece, die cut a hole through all the layers and added my frame: 

 Now for the part that's hard to photograph... when I glued my easel card together, I did not glue down the front easel piece that has the circle opening, so that it will open and close just like a regular card:

 I glued my matted image to the inside of the card, centering it under the circle opening:

 Here's a closeup of the snuggly couple:

 And finally a back view, which possibly shows it the best.  You can see how I tucked in some organdy ribbon on both the front and back of the easel, so that after the recipient has opened and read my card, they can tie it back up and put it on display.

We have a brand new challenge beginning today over on the Ai blog - our theme is "Be Merry"!  Share your holiday cards with us, and maybe you'll win a prize...

Happy Stamping!

Copics used: E11, E00, E000, C7, C5, C3, C1, R59, R27, R24, R22, R20, Y35, Y32, G28, G24, G21, YG05, YG03, YG01, B26, B24, B23, B21

Ai Watercolor & Easel Dies

I have something fun to share today from Art Impressions - along with 3 new Watercolor Mini Project Series sets, Ai has come out with two fabulous Easel Dies!!  You're going to love these:

I am using the Square Easel Die (Sku #4699) along with Flower Cart (Sku #4703):

 I started by cutting out two of the Easel die cuts using my Cocoa cardstock and glued them together (you can see a video of how to assemble them, here!)  Scroll down and you'll see a photo of the back of my Easel card.  I added a piece of patterned paper to my base, then I coloured directly onto the cart stamp using my Tombow markers, and stamped it onto smooth watercolour paper.  Using a damp paintbrush, I went over all of the outlined edges to soften them, and pulled out the colour to paint the cart.  Then I used the flower stamp to add some dark purple flowers.  I used several other foliage, grass and floral Ai stamps to create the rest of my flower cart, and went over them with my damp paintbrush as well.  I used some Distress ink to paint in the suggestion of a sky:

 I used a stitched circle die to cut out my image, and popped it up on pop dots, added a few irridescent sequins, and the Just For You (Sku #3143) sentiment.  Here's the back view of the Easel - I didn't glue the two flaps together because I found that it would lay beautifully flat for mailing if I left them open.  You just pull down the two little tabs and your card stands up perfectly:

 Our "Use Water-based Inks" challenge is still on for one more week - head on over to the Ai blog to see what the other Designers are sharing, and you can link up your creation there.  Happy stamping!