Easter Blessings, Art Impressions

Hello!  It's Monday and that means I'm over on the blog at Art Impressions today!

My card today features some of the adorable bunny images in the Basket of Blessings set.  I used the Window Die for the opening for the row of bunnies to peak through.  The flower pots are from the Potting Shed MTF.

For the card front I used a Spellbinders brick embossing folder (sadly it's retired) and some white card that I embossed on my score board for that bead board look.

I hope to see you over at Art Impressions' blog.  You'll find more photos and details!  As always, I so appreciate you stopping by here on my blog!  Have a great week!

Prismacolor Premier pencils:

Pink, Deco Pink, Blush Pink, Carmine Red, Olive Green, Apple Green

50% Cool Grey, 70% Cool Grey, 90% Cool Grey, 50% French Grey, 70% French Grey, Chestnut,  Terra Cotta, White

Supplies:

Art Impressions Basket of Blessings

Art Impressions Window Die
Art Impressions Potting Shed MTF

Hero Arts Unicorn White Pigment Ink

Birthday Holiday Mansion, Art Impression

Hello!  It is Week 2 of Art Impressions House or Cottage Challenge.  Have you entered?  I have a card today that features the previously released Holiday Mansion stamp and die set and the new accessory for it called HM Birthday Set.  There is also a new accessory set called HM Garden Set that is so adorable!

I stamped and die cut the images from the HM Birthday set.  I also stamped, then fussy cut, the Holiday Mansion.  There are dies for the doors and windows included in the set that I also used.  The window shutters also have dies to cut them out.

Many times I will stamp all the images of a set twice and usually only make one card because of time.  These were easy to put together, so today I have two cards to share today.  Everything was colored with Copic markers.  All of the supplies are listed below.

For the background, I used a cloud stencil and Distress Oxide ink to create the clouds.

This was my first time using the Holiday Mansion set.  After I stamped the mansion, at first, I wondered where to place the dies.  However, it didn't take long to figure out that all I needed to do was to center the dies in their respective openings.   I wanted to use this tag from the Flag Double Stitched Dies set, but it was too long.  I remembered that all I needed to do was to cut it once, then reposition the die where I wanted it and just cut the top portion.  Perfect size!!  The little fence, WC Fence Dies, is from the watercolor line, but is definitely great for other cards!  It has several shapes and sizes of fences.

 

Another extra touch I did was to add embossed lines to the mansion to imitate clapboard siding.  I just used my Scor-Pal and embossed equally spaced lines along the length of the mansion.   I think it adds a quaint touch!  

For this background, I used some blue card stock, the cloud stencil and white pigment ink to create the clouds.

For both cards I popped up the mansion with foam tape to give some dimension and help to show the cake and presents better.

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I hope you will enter into the challenge.  It can be ANY house/cottage stamp die or any other idea you have using that theme.  Check out all the details at Art Impressions HERE.  I'll be looking for your entry!  Happy crafting!

Supplies:

Art Impressions HM Birthday Set

Art Impressions Holiday Mansion Set

Art Impressions Flag Double Stitched Dies

Art Impressions WC Fence Dies

Sponge Daubers (for inking white pigment ink)

Ranger Distress Blending Brush

Distress Oxide Tumbled Glass

Hero Arts Unicorn White Pigment Ink

Honey Bee Stamps:  Hill Borders, Grass Border, Outdoor Scene Builder Stencils

Final Level 1 Challenge, AECP

I'm very happy to be sharing my project for my Level 1 final assignment for the Altenew Educator Certification Program.

My challenge was to create a gift set of at least six coordinated cards with a matching package to gift them in.  I also was to focus on three of the techniques from the ten classes in Level 1.  As you will see in my process, I'm focusing on techniques from Altenew Academy classes Let It Shine, Irresistible Inking Techniques and Easy Ink Blending Techniques.   The focus of my cards in this set is my most favorite thing of Altenew's, and that is their florals.

The techniques from the classes are as follows:
Easy Ink Blending Techniques - using emboss resist
Let It Shine - I used Rose Gold embossing powder for the shine
Clean & Simple Boutique Cards - dry embossing and creating gifts

To begin, I prepped several pieces of watercolor paper with an anti-static bag. (All supplies, with links, are listed below.)  I used my MISTI to stamp the flowers using Versamark clear ink.  I sprinkled on Altenew's Rose Gold embossing powder and melted it with my heat gun to set.  I like to use a coffee filter to catch the excess embossing powder as it makes it easy to pour it back into the bottle.  The embossed images will now resist any paint or ink that is applied to them.  The Easy Ink Blending class talks about using ink pads to color with.  Since my Altenew ink stash is very small, I used Altenew's beautiful Watercolor 36 Pan Set.  The colors in this set are just so vibrant and perfect for these flowers!

   

I began by taping my paper to my glass mat to help reduce warping.  I used some low-tack removable tape.  I didn't do that for the remain pieces as I didn't have too much warping.    As you can see from the photos (click to enlarge) I sometimes put some of the paint onto my mat with some water to reduce the intensity of the color.  It really is amazing how I just used a handful of paint colors to achieve the varying shades on each flower.  I used these colors for the flowers:  Coral Berry, Grapevine, Fresh Lemon, and Warm Sunshine.  By combining these colors in differing levels, you can get different looks. The leaves were painted with various combinations of: Forest Glades, Evergreen, and Bamboo.  Once all of the flowers and leaves were colored and thoroughly dry, I used the coordinating dies to cut them out.

      

Before assembling my cards, I needed to get the sentiments ready.  I wanted each sentiment strip to have a gold layer behind it so I smooshed my Versamark pad onto a piece of scrap 80# card stock and dumped the Rose Gold embossing powder all over it and heat set it--twice--gives it a more solid embossing!  Then I used my MISTI and arranged the sentiments so I could stamp them all at once.   I used my paper trimmer to cut them into strips and hand cut a few into banner shapes.  I cut the gold embossed paper to layer behind each one as you can see on the finished cards.

   

      

Next I decided to use the beautiful Layered Blossom Cover Die A to dry emboss a base layer for each card.  I used 80# Neenah Solar White paper.  You will need a rubber embossing mat to do this and follow your machines layering directions.  If you find that your paper cracks after embossing it, try spritzing both sides of the paper, VERY lightly, with a mist of water.  Then run it through your machine to dry emboss.  This helps to minimize any cracking that may happen.  To arrange the flowers and leaves for each card, a tip is to use Press N Seal after you have arranged your pieces the way you want.  Put the Press N Seal on top of your arrangement, flip it over, apply your adhesive to desired pieces, flip it back over and place it where you want to glue it.

   

Each card was assembled using a standard A2 top-fold card base with the dry embossed panel adhered onto it.  Most of the flowers are popped up with foam squares over the glued leaf clusters.  The sentiments are also popped up.  So here are all the photos of my cards.  I love how they turned out!!







 











This card is my bonus card that I made for our sweet and beautiful daughter.  Her birthday is today and we celebrated this past weekend, which is why it's not in the photo with the other cards.  She loved it!



And, finally, the gift box I made to present the set in.



The box was easy for me to make.  I did some searching in Pinterest and didn't find the size I wanted.  However, seeing how these were made I was able to create my own measurements for this box.  Before I glued the flaps of the yellow top, I centered a rectangle die (the die was slightly smaller than the Layered Blossom Cover Die A) on the top and cut it out.  Then I adhered the Cover Die A on the inside of the yellow top.  Because this post is already VERY long, and I wanted to easily find this myself, I created a page for my blog titled How To with the photos showing everything you need to make one of these yourself.  You can find that page by clicking "How To" at the top of my blog page or click HERE to go there now.



I stamped a sentiment from the Extra Special stamp set with Versamark and heat embossed it with Rose Gold embossing powder.  I then cut it out with a tag die, tied some ribbon on it, and adhered it with a glue dot.



And that all!  If you are reading this, I just have to say thank you so much!  I am very pleased with how this card set and box turned out.  If you have any questions, please leave a comment.  If you are a "no-reply" commenter, I won't be able to reply directly.  Otherwise, I'd love to hear what you think about my project!  I so appreciate all kind comments.

Carol :)

Supplies:

Altenew Crown Bloom Stamp Set

Altenew Crown Bloom Dies

Altenew Beautiful Heart Stamp Set

Altenew Beautiful Heart Dies

Altenew Spring Daisy Stamps

Altenew Spring Daisy Dies
Altenew Watercolor 36 Pan Set

Altenew Layered Blossom Cover Die A

Altenew Rose Gold Embossing Powder
Neenah Solar White 80# card stock
My Sweet Petunia MISTI - Original
Versamark Watermark Stamp Pad
Versafine Onyx Black ink

Hap-Pig Birthday!, Art Impressions

Happy Monday!  I'm over on Art Impressions' blog with this fun birthday card using the Guinea Pig Out set.

I really enjoyed creating this little scene for these guys enjoying their cake.  I think they like cake as much as I do!  Haha!

I've also used two of their newest die sets here.  For the banner I used the smallest die from the Banner Double Stitched Dies set.  The sentiment is cut out with a die from the Flag Double Stitched Dies.  I have more photos and all the details on how I created this over at Art Impressions.  Just click the link to be taken directly there.

Thank you for stopping by!  I hope you'll join me over on the blog at Art Impressions!

Copics:

R11, R13, R35, R37, RV21, Y02, Y08, Y15, Y19, BG000, BG0000,

YG06, YG09, YG11, YR000, E0000, E11, E13, E23, E31, E35

E41, E47, E55, E57, E79, 100, C0, C1, C3, T0, T2, Blender

Love You Mower!, Art Impressions

Hi friends!  It's Monday and that means I'm over on the blog at Art Impressions today.

The set I've used for my two cards is called Born to Ride.  It actually has two other images included that I featured in my card on THIS post.

Both cards are very similar in design, however, the second one has a few more details.  Both were super easy to make too!  I used alcohol markers on both (listed below) to color the images, including the grass.  For this first card I stamped a mask to use a cloud stencil with Distress Oxide ink.

For the second card I paper pieced his shirt from some plaid paper.  I used a light gray marker to add shadows for a bit of dimension.  I die cut a sun and some clouds, popping up a few of the clouds with foam dots.

For me, masculine cards can be a struggle.  This stamp set makes it so easy to make a card for that special guy.  Thank you so much for stopping by!  Have a great crafty week.

Copics (**=Spectrum Noir markers)

Cap, shoes: B34, B97

Shirt: Y15, (**CT1, 2, 4)

Shorts: W3, W5, W7, (**AG1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Tractor:  YG06, YG17, YG67, R39, 29, 27, 17

Seat, gloves:  E25, E47, E15, E33, E53

Tires:  N5, N9

Wheels: N2, N4, N5, N9

Metal parts: N2, N4, N5

Skin: E30, E53, E02

Grass:  YG03, YG06, YG09, G05

Supplies:

Art Impressions Born to Ride
Neenah Desert Storm #80 card stock

My Favorite Things Petite Plaid 6x6 paper pad

My Favorite Things Cloud stencil

Honey Bee Stamps Grass Border die

W Plus 9 Sending Sunshine

AECP, For The Guys

Woohoo!  This is my final card in the Level 1 classes in the Altenew Educator Certification Program.  This class is called For The Guys and can be found in the Altenew Academy.

So, this was quite the challenge for me for two reasons.  First, most of my Altenew stash is flowers, well because I love flowers, and Altenew's are beautiful!  I just don't think a card with flowers is very masculine!  Haha!  Second, my main takeaway from the lessons of this class is that masculine cards are generally CAS and non-fussy.  Well, if you follow my card making at all, you will know that I rarely make a card with those features!!

So, after going through my Altenew stash, I settled on this oh, so cool Cube Builder stencil.  I've only used it a couple of times and thought this just might work!

I taped the stencil over my 80# Neenah Solar White card stock and used a Ranger Distress Blending Brush to add the ink.  The back of the packaging shows you how to use this stencil.  It's very easy and you just ink the first color, lift up the stencil (clean off the ink!) and flip it over, then ink the second color.  Done!

   

The most fun part is lifting up the stencil after inking the second time!  Magic!!

   

For the sentiment I used Altenew's Happy Die.  I cut it once in 110# Neenah Solar White.  Instead of searching my card stock stash to find a color to match, I swiped the Lagoon ink pad directly onto a scrap piece of card.  Once that ink was dry, I die cut the Happy again.  I glued the Lagoon colored die offset to the back of the white one.  I also stamped the word 'birthday' from the Birthday Builder stamp set in the Lagoon ink and cut it into a banner shape.

I'm very pleased with how this came out.  I've learned that a card doesn't need to be fussy or sparkly to be quite pretty!

Carol :)

Supplies:

Altenew Cube Builder Stencil

Altenew Happy Die

Altenew Birthday Builder

Altenew inks:  Mountain Mist, Lagoon

Distress Ink Blending Brush