Inspired By

A challenge!  I haven't played along with a challenge in so long... but I had this cherry image stamped and ready to go, so when I saw the inspiration photo for the Inspired By challenge, I decided to colour it up:

This is from the Exclusive Cherry Set by Art Impressions, that is available only at Scrapbook.com (link below!).  I did a fairly quick colour of the image using my Copic markers, then cut it out with the Inside Out Stitched Rounded Rectangle die, and mounted it on some Echo Park Dots & Stripes paper.  Here was our inspiration:

Exclusive Rose Set for Watercolor Weekend

 For the upcoming Watercolour Weekend on the Art Impressions blog, I have coloured up the pretty rose bouquet image from the Exclusive Rose Set available at Scrapbook.com:

I used one of the Double Stitched A2 Rectangle dies to cut my Canson XL Watercolor paper, and put it into my Misti along with the image that I chose.  This allowed me to colour it in stages, using multiple colours and restamping when needed.  I used my Tombow Dual Brush Marker #725 Rhodamine Red to colour the buds and the outer petals of the roses, then switched to #993 Chrome Orange for the rose centers.  I softened the lines with a damp #1 paintbrush, then scribbled them both onto my palette and painted in the pink and orange tones, concentrating them in the crevices between petals.  I did a similar process for the leaves, stamping them first in #177 Dark Jade, pulling out the colour with my damp brush - and then restamping after colouring the veins and stems with #249 Hunter Green.  I picked up #126 Light Olive from my palette, added touches of this brighter green to the leaves, and added some #992 Sand to the woody stems.  

To finish the painting, I picked up #565 Deep Blue, and painted it as my background, concentrating it more, closer to the image.  The sentiment is from the Exclusive Daisy Set, stamped in Onyx Black Versafine ink.  After matting the image with a 1/16" black mat, I attached it to my base with 3D adhesive, then added a sprinkling of tiny white pearls.

Greenery Invites Set

I have the third card to share today using Greenery Invites from Art Impressions - all with gold foil using my Minc machine:

When I first went to use this stamp set, being that it is intended for weddings, I got on Pinterest to see what are current/trendy colour combos for weddings.  There was a lot of blush pink, navy & neutrals, so I knew that these papers from Pink Paislee would be perfect.

This is a 5 1/2" square card that I made by running the wreath image and sentiment through my Minc machine to add gold foil.  I die cut them both with stitched dies, matted with a matte navy cardstock, and then onto the shimmery blush square of cardstock.  The sentiment is adhered with pop dots for a little dimension.  Enjoy!

Greenery Invites - You're Invited

Sharing my second card today using Greenery Invites - again using my Minc machine to add gold foiling to the font and corner images:

 It's so hard to photograph glimmer!  But I think you can see in the first photo how pretty and shimmery this is in real life.  After die cutting my sentiment with a stitched square die, I mounted it on navy and then a larger square of shimmery blush cardstock.  The corner images were fussy cut and mounted with foam tape.  You can find the Greenery Invites set on the Art Impressions website, here.

Greenery Invites

Keeping my roll going sharing a card made with the new Greenery Invites from Art Impressions:

I knew from the moment I saw this set, that I wanted to do some gold foiling!  So using my Minc machine, I foiled one of the wreath images, and my sentiment.  I matted the large circle with some wonderful shimmery blush pink cardstock, and added a few gold sequins to add to the glimmer.

I'll be posting my other two cards using this set over the coming days.

Cheryl's card

One of my sisters is lucky enough to have her birthday fall on Mother's Day every so often, so here is the card that I sent her:

 Once again, it's my current favourite stamp set: Floral Invites from Art Impressions.  I really love how this one turned out, with the bold flowers and multi-coloured greenery, coloured with Copic markers.

I die cut my image out and raised it with 3D adhesive,  onto my warm yellow card base.  I die cut a larger circle from the polka dot paper, and also adhered it to the base with 3D adhesive tape - it's a great look.  Happy Birthday to my big sis :o)

Last Floral Invite Card (for now!)

Here's the 3rd card I made with the Floral Invites set from Art Impressions - I'll show the trio of coordinating cards first, and then scroll down to see the little Thank You card on it's own.

 Making cards that coordinate, just makes me happy!

I'm pretty sure that this was 4 1/4" square (I've long since sent it on to Ai!).  Thank you cards are often a little smaller than regular cards, so I just focused on die cutting the sentiment with my hexagon stitched dies, and added one of the little sprigs coloured in Copic markers.  The background has a soft blending of Distress Oxide ink, and then was spattered with a little deep blue ink.