Allie's card

 I always want to make something special for my niece whom I share my crafting passion with, when it's her birthday!  It's an all-diecut card this year - with my new Eucalyptus and Citrus Slice dies from The Greetery, with a whole bunch of ink blending to add some interest, and ink spatters in blue, black and gold.  It needed a little something more, so I tucked some pine boughs that I had on my desk in behind.  I adhered it all to a desert sand piece of cardstock that I added a little Speckled Egg to, and tied some twine around the stems.  Happy Birthday, Allie!

Block Alpha Valentine

You all know how much I love the 5072 - Block Letters Die Set from Art Impressions... and word die cards are very popular right now, especially as valentines.  I wanted to do another colour strip card, so combined the two ideas to make a slimline card:

 I did some ink blending on my white textured card stock, using Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide ink, fading it upwards, then cut out my shape with Studio Katia's Dotted Slimline die, and centered my L, V, E and heart die before running it through my diecut machine again.  I used a Pinkfresh Studio stencil and some Festive Berries ink to add a little something to my background panel, then added 1/4" strips of my six cardstock colours, and adhered the white panel down with 3D foam adhesive.  A few irridescent blue jewels added a little sparkle.

Valentine Mailbox

For the next Watercolour Weekend post on the Art Impressions blog, I'm doing a simple scene to show you how to make a Valentine by using the stamps you have.

I stamped the mailbox image from 5575 - Mailbox Birdhouse Set in Tombow #969/565 onto my Canson XL Watercolour Paper.  And used the same markers to add the bird from 5561 - Birds and Bugs Set.  I wanted to create a bunch of hearts spilling out of the mailbox, so with a pencil, I sketched the hearts, making them smaller as the floated away.  I also drew one tilted sideways in the bird's beak.  I used three of the blooms in 5008 - WC Flower set 3 coloured in #856/177 and stamped my flowers around the base of the wood stand.

After pulling out all of the colour with a damp brush, I used #761/856 to paint the hearts, keeping a lighter highlite area.  #993 was added to the flag, and shades of #969 were painted in streaks to suggest woodgrain on the base of the mailbox.  The sweet bird was painted with shades of #528, with a little #565 on the wing tips and as shadows.  With the two grasses in 5476 - WC Foliage Set 5, I added them under the flowers in #177/126, and blended them with my damp paintbrush.  I just lightly touched each bloom with my paintbrush to enliven the colour a little, but not enough to lose the definition of the petals.  A wash of #565 was added to the sky.  I hope you'll pull out some of your regular stamp sets and make them into something sweet for Valentine's Day!

Be sure to check out the Ai blog this Saturday, to see what Tricia & Diane have to share.

Folk Floral Stem

 When your daughter needs an engagement card... you dive into your new supplies from the Papercrafter's Workshop's Boxing Day sale and get down to business.  It was the perfect excuse to pull out the Floral Folk Stem stamp and stencils - so quick and easy to get great results.  I used the Perfect Sentiments set and a few irridescent jewels to glam it up.  All supplies are Pinkfresh Studio.

I am entering this into the January Card Challenge on the Pinkfresh Studio blog... which is to revisit a challenge from 2022.  I'm going with May's "Anything Spring" challenge.

Ruscus Birthday

 This is going to be one of my go-to products to make birthday cards!  I made this for my husband, and went a bit artsy with a watercoloured background, a bit of ink blending on the leaves, and then black and gold paint spatters over everything.  I adhered it to my base with 3D foam adhesive, and added a little sentiment from Lawn Fawn.  The Ruscus Die is from The Greetery.

Valentines for Veterans

 I am happy to have been able to put together 30 cards for an initiative that the library I work at is supporting this week.  Valentines for Veterans is a program that the government supports to have homemade valentine cards given to veterans in long term care homes.  We will be putting out craft supplies at the library, so families can create the cards, and write a brief note inside thanking them for their service.  I kept the designs bright and bold, and made multiples of each:

Critter Pots

We'll be kicking off the 2023 Watercolour Weekends on the Art Impressions blog this Saturday!

I've painted a bright and fun scene today using 5519 - WC Mini Critter Pots.

I placed the snail, owl & puppy onto one clear block, which allowed me to place them exactly where I wanted them, and I could ensure they were straight as this is a clear set.  I inked them all up in #565/969, and stamped onto my Canson XL Watercolour Paper.  With a pencil, I sketched in the plant stands.  I used #569 to paint the owl, #346 for the snail, and #N55 for the puppy.  With these colours: #565/757/993/346/126 I created the flowers and foliage using these stamp sets: 5008/4052/4868/5009/5126/4964.  After softening the images with a damp brush, I used #N52 to paint in the background, and went in with #565 to add shadows under and on the images.  I used my black Twintone marker to add the dots around the flowers, and to darken the eyes of each critter.  I die cut the image and adhered it to my base with some 3D foam adhesive.

Be sure to check out the Ai blog on Saturday to see what Tricia, and our new Design Team member, Diane have to share!  Now... before I finish up - I'd like to share my second card that I made for the Watercolour Weekend post.  I intended to post both versions to show how you can do just half of the images to make a second card.  I ended up finding the oval image WAY too busy, and prefer the slightly less crazy rectangular image.  But in the end, I've decided to post both of them here on my blog, as they both turned out to be really pretty - is the oval one busy?  Absolutely!  But I like it anyway :-)