Girlfriends make the best Accessories! by Sharon Caudle

Hello AI Fans!

For my card today, I wanted to feature one of the amazing sets from the Art Impressions Girlfriends Line of stamps. This is #4129 Uptown Girls Set! LOVE them all!! They were so much fun to color and they look like they are having such fun together!! Don't ya think??  I stamped them on some Cryogen white paper and colored them with Copic markers. 

Girlfriends do indeed make the best accessories!  Thanks so much for stopping in for a visit today and hope you're enjoying your weekend! Until next time - stay crafty!!

Copics used: E000, E00, E11, E17, E33, E97, E99
R20, R35, R37, R39
RV32, RV34
BV000, BV11, BV13, BV17
V05, V12, V15, V17
Y15, Y17
T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6
Blender Pen

Easter Critter Cups by Cheri Burry!

Hi Ai Fans!

Today I am sharing with you a super cute and easy little project you can make for your Easter Table! My Mom is having the whole extended family, so around 30 people this year for Easter. When I saw these adorable Critter Cups from Art Impressions, I knew my Mom and I would make them for her table place settings!

 Since we had so many to make we decided to use 12x12 paper from the Echo Park Hello Spring collection, rather than colour with Copics. The only Colouring we did was to use R20 on the Bunny's paws and cheeks. We added some whiskers with a black marker pen. The set comes with the images and dies and is honestly really east to use and assemble!

Because my Chocolate eggs were a bit on the heavy side, the cup keep falling over. I glued a die cut piece of cardstock to the bottom and voila all was good. It also let us fill the cup with Easter grass and not have to worry about it falling out the bottom.

Here's the back view. Looking at this picture now, a light went off LOL.  I think I will go back and add either little pom pom or cotton ball tails. I think it's look cute!

Thanks for stopping in today! I wish everyone the Happiest of Easters spent with Family & Friends!!

Happy Stamping!

Supplies:

NEW Twist Ties! Four Fun Animal Designs! PLUS, Challenge 229 Gatefold Cards!

Send a sweet squeeze with our latest interactive release - Twist Ties! This innovative concept is used with a larger-than gatefold card, where the stamp images and dies align with the card edges to create interlocking animal hugs! There are FOUR new designs featuring Flamingos, Elephants, Giraffes, and Dogs, each with adorable sentiments to match! Don't forget to grab your Twist Tie Card & Envelope 8/pack for the perfect card bases to get you stamping in no time!

 

Dana here with a video featuring the new Elephant Twist Tie! There are lots of different ways to use these Twist Ties's I hope this gives you at least one idea to try!

https://youtu.be/xZPseed7hZw

Supplies:

Stamps: Art Impressions - Elephant Twist Ties

Spectrum Noir Markers - AB1, AB2, BG2, BG4, BG6, BG7, CR8, CT4, DG4, OR1, YG2, YG3, Blender

Distress Ink - Abandoned Coral, Peeled Paint, Tumbled Glass, Wild Honey.

Heidi Swapp Stencil

KI Memories Glitter Dots - Playlists

Crafter's Companion Luxury Cardstock

Thanks, Dana! Love your adorable Elephant card! Too sweet!

With a new release comes a new challenge! We hope you'll play along! This challenge is about gatefold cards, which are cards that open from the middle. We can't wait to see what you make!

Here are the Challenge Rules

✻ Please make a new card or creation. You can make any crafty item you wish; this is not limited to cards!

✻ Limit two submissions per person. You will receive extra votes if you use Art Impressions stamps!

✻ The Ai Challenge is open to everyone, international submissions are welcome!

✻ Include a link back to the Ai Blog or grab our button on the top right of our sidebar!

✻ Share the Ai love by clicking and commenting your fellow crafters.

✻ Make sure to get your link up by Wednesday, April 11 at 5:00 p.m. PST to enter your creations.

✻ Good luck and happy stamping!

An InLinkz Link-up

Now it's time to recognize the winners of last week's challenge, Perfect Pastimes! We had so many wonderful submissions, so we decided to do four honorable mentions this week!

Honorable Mentions go to...

Dandi93 

Congratulations Irene! We loved your cute coffee mug featuring our Weekend Warrior set with your husband's favorite 'tinkering' pastime and the time you spend with him over a cup of coffee! Email annelise@artimpressions.com with your address to claim your free set!

Amy Marshall

Way to go, Amy! We loved your cool background behind our Cropper image! One of our favorite pastimes, too! Email annelise@artimpressions with your address and your choice of set from our website!

Helen F

Gorgeous card, Helen! Amazing concept with the layered Polaroid frames and our favorite Wine Tasters. Just like you took a photo! Email annelise@artimpressions.com with your mailing address and pick a set from artimpressions.com for your prize!

Janet K

Cool scrapbook layout, Janet! We love how you paired our Live Laugh Love image with one of your favorite photos, and that sentiment couldn't be more perfect! Email annelise@artimpressions.com with your choice of set and mailing address to claim your prize!

Thanks for joining our challenge, see you next week! Happy Stamping! 

NEW VIDEO - Wishing Well Watercolor

Hello Ai Fans!

Welcome to a new Watercolor Wednesday!

This week, Bonnie uses our WC Wishing Well Set to create a dreamy scene with budding vines and tall wildflowers. She starts by inking the wishing well with Sepia and African Violet, then adding Prussian Blue from the palette for color. She then inks the vine from her WC Foliage Set 3 in both Pine Green and a bit of Violet at the ends and climbs them up and around the top of the roof. Next, she adds wild and short grasses around the base, then creating some wildflowers growing from those. Don't forget to sign and date!

Another week, another wonderful project! Share your watercolor paintings with us by posting on our Facebook or using our hashtag on Instagram #AiWatercolor!

Happy Watercolor Wednesday!

View on YouTube: https://youtu.be/5f5UzBQh9HM

Ouch by Dana Warren

Hello AI fans!!

I love the smirk on the crutches kitty in the Catastrophy set! It's a perfect card for a cat lover who on the mend!! And an easy card to make too!!

I started with a grey card base and used Sweet Stamps Banister Stencil. I used Versamark ink to ink up the top half or so of the stencil. Next, I added a strip of gold polka washi tape where I stop inking the stencil.

Then I stamped the crutch kitty and used my Spectrum Noir markers to color him. I used IG3, IG4 to make the stripes and then CR4 for the ears and cheeks. 

I fussy cut him out and added him to the card with foam dots. Then I stamped the Ouch sentiment, cut it out and added it to with foam dots. 

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Stamping!!

Easter Bunnies by Jil Lebel

Hello Ai fans!

Happy Easter!

Well, it's almost Easter.  This is my last chance to wish you all a Happy Easter even though I thought that was the case last week.  This week I'm using the HM Easter Set 4976. This stamp set is designed to be used with the Holiday Mansion set, but I decided to use it without the mansion.  There are a bunch of cute little images that can be used by themselves.  What makes everything even easier is that the dies are included in the set !

I stamped my images onto Spectrum Ultra Smooth Premium white card stock with MFT Extreme black ink and colored them with my Copic markers.  Colors are listed below.  I have a pretty limited Copic collection so I had to get creative.  I wanted pastel colors so I used my regular colors and lightened them with my colorless blender.

For the main layer, I used my Cricut Air to cut out the word Easter onto cream paper.  I then cut out a layer using my SSS Stitched rectangles.  I made a card base with 110 lb. white paper.  I masked off the areas that would show through each letter of the word Easter.  I them colored in each area using the mini blending tool with a foam tool and my Distress inks.  In order I used Spun Sugar, Spiced Marmalade, Scattered Straw, Shabby Shutters, Shaded Lilac and Tumbled Glass.  I attached the cream layer onto the card.  After that I added the four bunnies, the basket and paint cans over each letter with foam tape.  The last thing I did was add a matching colored gem next to each letter.

Copics used:
Bunnies - E30, E31, W1, W3, RV10
Buckets - C5, C3, C1
B00, BV00, Y11. YG03, Blender

Thanks for stopping by and Have a Great Day!

hello beau-tea-ful by Diane Zechman

Hello Ai friends and happy Monday!

 

Today I am sharing a card using one of the Ai Valentine sets... but not for a valentine! Here I used 5005- Valentine Bears Set to make a sweet "hello" card.

 

This bear in a teacup image is so heart-warming! I found some teacup paper to match, then paired a die cut "hello" with the "beau-tea-ful" stamp on a hand-cut banner for my sentiment. I kept it clean & simple and let the bright pink circle draw the focus to the image.

 

Have a great Monday and… happy stamping!

 

Live Life and GOLF!! by Reneé Matarese

Hello Ai fans!

Today I'm sharing the first of several golf cards that I made for a benefit.  My husband's friend is an avid golfer and is battling cancer.  There is a benefit for him coming up and we're donating a raffle basket with some Titleist balls, a gift card for a local sporting goods store and some golf themed cards that I made.

This one was made using Art Impressions fun set called

4902 – Par-Tee Golfers Set

It's from the Work and Play line.

I hope whoever wins our basket knows just

the right golfer that will love this card!

On the inside I used a verse from another

Ai set called 4572 – Throttle Spinner

from the Spinners line.

Don't sweat it!! by Sharon Caudle

Hello AI Fans!!

For my card today, I used #4528 Don't Sweat It Set from the line of AI People. Doesn't she make a fun Birthday card?!  She's makes for a pretty quick card too, as she's super easy to color up. Pair her up with some cute Doodlebug paper and voila! 

Thanks so much for stopping by today and hope you have a great weekend! Until next time - stay crafty!