More Love Birds

I have another couple of cards to share today using the Love Birds (Sku #AiCS27) set from Art Impressions:

 My patterned papers have a bit of a homey feel to them, so I used a couple of the smaller patterns to do some paper piecing for their outfits.

 I kept everything flat this time, so both cards are easy to mail!

 One of the other sentiments in the set is simply "Happy Anniversary", which would also work really well with this cute couple.  Happy stamping!

 Copics used: E11, E00, E000, E37, E34, E31, R30, R20, B97, B95, B93, B91, E57, E55, E53, E51, C1, B0000.

InLinkz.com

Inspired By All The Little Things #44

It's my week as host over on the Inspired By All The Little Things blog!  I have chosen this carnival image with the sort-of magical twilight lighting.  I have a real "thing" for carnival images/art... so it's kind of funny that I didn't go that direction with my card!  Here's our image for the week:

 I also hadn't intended to do a sympathy card, but after creating the background, I wanted a sentiment that had a little more meaning to it.  I started by masking off the sun shape, and sponging the background with three different Distress Inks.  I chose the sentiment from Verve, and added some red twig die cuts where I sponged the tips with dark brown ink to deepen them a little like the edges of the Ferris Wheel in the photo.

My Guest Designer this week is my cyber-friend, Becca Whitham!  We are both former CTMH consultants, who started challenging each other to use up older papers that we've had kicking around for years.  She is a super talented lady, with a real knack for watercolouring on her cards.  Oh, and did I mention that she's a writer?  Check out her blog, and you can see the links to her books on her sidebar.

Cardstock is Bamboo, Black, White Daisy & Tulip - all CTMH; Stamp set is Inspire Hope by Verve; Hayden Twigs die by Memory Box; Distress Inks are Antique Linen, Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean & Frayed Burlap; Black Onyx Ink by Versafine.

Mason Jar Pin Cushions

 This is the February edition of Tuesday Threads with Karen!  Is it just me, or are the rest of you as obsessed with Mason jars as I am??  I have a quick & fun project to share with you today using the wonderful Art Impressions Shop Hop fabrics that are available through Henry Glass Co. - Mason jar pin cushions!

I love the idea of having a pin cushion that is both decorative, and a little storage container!

Once you have all your supplies assembled, this is about a 10 minute project.  I started with a 6" square of fabric, and rounded off the edges.  You need a needle & thread, plus a large handful of batting (it takes way more than I show in the photo!), and a mason jar of any size:

 Run a loose basting stitch around the outside of the fabric circle, and place the batting in the middle.

 Pull on the thread to gather the circle around the batting, as shown below - what I don't show in the photo, is that you slip the flat metal jar seal in on top of the batting before tightening the thread completely.  This is where you determine how much batting to put in, as you want the pin cushion to be full and tight:

 Now push the cushion into the screw top - it will force the soft batting through and out the top, and the metal lid remains underneath.  To hide the gathered fabric as shown below, use a hot glue gun to attach a circle of felt for a tidy finish:

 Voila!

Remember the cute little fabric boxes I showed you in this post back in January?  Just think how cute it would be to have a Mason jar pin cushion and a few little matching fabric boxes in your craft room...

 We would love to see what you create with the Ai Shop Hop fabrics - just leave us a note/photo on the Art Impressions facebook page.

Happy sewing!

InLinkz.com

Retirement card

I have a co-worker retiring today, and even though we haven't worked together all that long, she's been a hoot to be around!  So your average sedate retirement card wasn't going to cut it.  I pulled out Millie from Art Impressions, gave her a zingy little outfit, and made a fun card:

 And of course, your average retirement sentiment wasn't going to cut it.  Here's the inside:

 Happy retirement, Alice!

New Mini Try-folds at Art Impressions

More new Ai!  The Art Impressions design team are all showing off the two newly released Mini Try-fold sets available on the Ai website - I am sharing Celebrate Spring MTF (Sku #4849):

 These little sets are designed for a card with three layers.  The outside image also includes a tiny door die, that scores along the hinged edge so that the door opens, and you can see through to the other layers.

 Here is the middle layer, and again the set includes the die that fits right in the middle of the scene.

 And finally, here is the inner image!  It's hard to capture how cute these cards are in photos - they're quite amazing in person.  You can see all of the Art Impressions Mini TF's here.

Copics used: Greens - YG67, YG63, YG61, YG03, YG01, YG00

Blues - BG075, BG072, BG070

Pinks - RV14, RV13 RV11, R32, R35

Greys - C3, C1

Browns - E57, E55, E53, E51

Golds - Y26, Y23, E50

Love Birds

 There are a lot of wonderful Art Impressions stamps that can be used as valentines... and I am using one of them today.  Love Birds (Sku #AiCS27) is a clear acrylic set with two main images, two small images and five great sentiments:

 One of the sentiments in the set is "Happy Anniversary" which would be the perfect sentiment for the inside of the card, but a "Happy Valentines Day" would do nicely.  Here's another colour combo:

 Happy stamping!

 Copic markers used: Skin - E00, E11

Greys - W5, W3, W1, W00, C5, C3, C1, C00

Browns - E44, E43, E41

Greens - BG75, BG72, BG70, YG15, YG03, YG01, BG15, BG13, BG11

Reds - R59, R46, R35, R32

Purples - BV02, BV01, BV00

Yellows - Y26, Y21, E50 

InLinkz.com

A Valentine

I made up a quick valentine today to play along with a couple of challenges.  Falling in Love is the theme for the first week of Feb challenge on the Heart 2 Heart blog, so I pulled out some old-as-the-hills Close To My Heart paper (anyone remember this?  Becca?) and one of their newer thinlit dies for "love".  I had coloured up this little Boy Cupid from Art Impressions a few weeks ago, and wanted to make up a valentine for one of my kids, so I am also playing along with the current challenge on the Ai blog which is "Lots of Love":