Last of the new Art Impressions release!

 It's been a great few weeks slowly releasing the new Art Impressions Watercolor stamps on the Ai blog.  We've reached the end!  The last 4 sets will be available for purchase on the Ai website (here!) today.  I made a slimline card using two of the new sets:

There are 3 new Silhouette sets, this is 5428 - WC Silhouette Horses, and the fences are part of 5416 - WC Vintage Car Set.  The barn is from the previously released 5262 - WC Mini Cabins Set, trees are 5372 - WC Mini Foliage, and the fence is from 5371 - WC Barn Set.  The rocks are the new 5415 - WC Rocks Set.

I started by stamping my barn and fences, to determine where everything would go, and then I sketched in the mountains, hillsides and driveway.  I then painted them all in with a light wash, as I knew I'd be stamping overtop, and didn't want to have to paint around the small images.  With my stamp positioner, I added in the two horses, being careful to place the slightly larger one in the foreground, and the smaller horse slightly back.  I added in the rocks and trees, darkening them with several different colours.  To brighten things up, I added grasses and a few dots of yellow as wildflowers, and painted in the barn.  Finally I used my #565 Tombow to add shadows where needed.

By the way, these are very well behaved horses that don't leave through the open gate...

Check out the Ai blog, to see what Dot, Tricia and Bonnie have to share!

Hey There Dumpling

 This is quite possibly the cutest stamp set that I've bought in a while!  I saw "Hey There Dumpling" from Catherine Pooler a few months ago, and finally ordered it in.  I've stamped and fussy cut about 100 images ready to make into cards, and here is the first one made for a special birthday today:

Using up some old CTMH papers that I've had for years, and pulled out a Spellbinder's Hemstitch Oval die to create my little scene on.  I added a little Wink of Stella for a bit of sparkle.

Happy Birthday, Glitzy!

Just a Little Lovely

 I am a little behind in joining the floral trend in cardmaking, but am rectifying that this summer with several new Pinkfresh Studio stamp sets.  Here is "Just a Little Lovely":

I placed the stamp into my Misti, and stamped half of it on the bottom of my cardstock, and half on the top in Memento Tuxedo Black ink, then coloured the image with Copic markers

I left just enough space between the images to tuck in a sentiment - also from the same stamp set.  I added a few Pinkfresh Studio pale pink jewels to sparkle it up a little, then adhered my panel to my teal base with 3D foam adhesive.

You can find this and other Pinkfresh Studio products at the Papercrafter's Workshop in Stouffville, Ontario (check out their online store, here!).  If you make it in the store, you just may see this card up as a sample.  Happy stamping!

Crazy Birds Slimline

 This stamp set never gets old!!  I needed a masculine birthday card, had this background ready to go, and thought of the Tim Holtz Crazy Birds stamp set from a few years ago (five? eight?).  Those fun little birds look great coloured rainbow style, so I pulled out my Copics and got to work:

The background is Distress Oxide Inks blended on a Pinkfesh Studio stencil, and the die/sentiment are Photoplay's Say it With Stamps line.

I stamped off a whole bunch of the Crazy Birds while I had them out... so you'll be seeing a few more from me this summer.

Quick & Easy Slimline

 I find ink blended backgrounds so therapeutic to create!  And there are so many great stencils out there right now.  This is from the You Are Amazing 3-step stencil set from Pinkfresh Studio, along with their Hello die:

Distress Oxide inks are Rustic Wilderness, Mowed Lawn & Twisted Citron.

Pinkfresh Slimline

 Diving back into my Pinkfresh Studio products today.  I've used the matching stencils to colour this stamp set, but this is the first time that I've stamped it and coloured with Copic markers.  It was so quick, and came together really easily.

It is also my first time using the Horizontal Stripes Slimline stencil, and I am loving the ombre effect!  I used five different Distress Oxide inks, then used a slimline die to cut it to the right size.  I fussy cut out my floral image and adhered it with 3D foam adhesive.  A few green sparkles from my stash finished it off.

Masculine Art Impressions Card

 I've put together a masculine card for this weekend's Watercolor Weekend post on the Art Impressions blog:

I cut my decorative oval die out of Canson XL Watercolor Paper, and stamped the dock from 5057 - WC Boat Set in Tombow #565/969, and with a pencil, sketched in where my shoreline would be.  Using my stamp positioner, I placed the rocks from 5415 - WC Rocks Set colored in #N45, and the ducks from 5424 - WC Pond Set in #565/969 which set up my scene.  Before stamping anything else, I painted my lake in a wash of #555, and painted the sky with #565.  I painted #990 along the shoreline and a wash of #177 to be the grassy bank.  Using my positioner, I placed the lily pads, both rushes and greenery stamps from the Pond Set onto my scene.  Using #969/992 and 977, I painted in the boards of the dock, keeping them streaky and darker in the crevices to look like old wood.  I Googled "Mallard Ducks" to make sure I painted the ducks accurately, and then used #565 to add shadows around them, under the dock and down the edges of the shore to look like water ripples. I used a damp paintbrush on the lily pads and greenery, as well as the rocks, to pull out the color.  

So many great uses for these sets for masculine cards!  Be sure to check out the blog on Saturday to see what Dot & Tricia have to share.

Floral Notes in Blue

 A few weeks back, I shared my pink version of this stencil - and today I have my blue version made up into a card.  Oh, how I love this stencil!!  It inks up so quickly, and Pinkfresh Studio makes them so easy to line up and achieve great results.

Distress Oxide colours are Shaded Lilac, Wilted Violet, Blueprint Sketch, Crushed Olive and Mowed Lawn.  All the dies and jewels are also from Pinkfresh Studio.

Slimline Best Wishes

 I've been playing with this card for several weeks!  Nothing felt right until I switched up the sentiment.  Using all Pinkfresh Studio products today, You Are Amazing stencils, Slim Diagonal Stitched Rectangles Dies and Scripted Bold Sentiments:

The sentiment is gold heat embossed on a vellum panel, and a few gold sequins finished things off.

Bookmark Cards

 The Design Team is helping to launch new Bible Journaling sets on the Ai blog today!

I made a trio of cards using the 5417 - Frameworks Sentiments Set, 5419 - Bible Icons Set 1 and 5420 - Frameworks Set 1.  They started out as bookmarks, but I decided they would each look great on a card:

I started by cutting out my tags from Bristol Smooth Cardstock - the lantern card is using the Ai 5223 - Bookmark Die, the others are from my stash.  I stamped the icons first, using a no-line watercolor method for the fruit, and typical Ai style for the other two.  These are small images, so after stamping, I used my #1 paintbrush to carefully paint in all of the colours, adding layers and shades.  I masked each of the images, then stamped the frames using Tombows for the twig wreath, die ink for the rectangle, and Versamark for the oval - which I then embossed with gold powder.  I used Distress inks and blending brushes to add some soft background colour to each tag (my favourite is the rainbow!).  Usine my Misti to help with positioning, I stamped each sentiment using Versafine Onyx Black Ink.  I cut out a second tag of each style to put behind each one - allowing them to pop a bit more, added some Baker's Twine and mounted them to the cards with 3D foam adhesive.

Here's a closeup to see the embossed gold frame: