Hello Spring from Art Impressions

 Hello Spring!!

Well, almost.  We're not "out of the woods" yet where I live. Last April we received a foot of heavy, wet snow on the 19th which destroyed several of our trees. You just never know in the Northeast.

For now, I'm going to choose to believe that bluebirds and butterflies and flowers and bees will be here before you know it!

My card fits with the current Pop It Up challenge over on the blog.

I used several Art Impressions products on my card.

There are 3 stamp/die sets, 1 die set and a paper pack.

Links to everything are below.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and that your Spring will be filled with flowers and happiness. And for those of you who are now coming into the colder months. I'm sorry...lol!  We've done our time here though. Time for some warm weather!

Bonnie's Birthday Challenge at Art Impressions

Hello Ai fans!

It's The Queen's birthday!
Queen Bonnie, our Queen Bee.

In honor of Bonnie's birthday, we're sending her birthday cards!

Her birthday is July 10th and we hope you'll join us in brightening her day.

If you'd like to send her some birthday wishes you can mail your cards here...

Art Impressions
ATTN: Bonnie

PO Box 20085

Keizer, OR 97303

We know you all love her as much as we do!

You DO NOT need to send Bonnie a card to play along in this challenge.  As usual, all entries are welcome.  You just need to create something birthday themed to play along.  Cards, tags, gift bags, gift boxes, birthday banners, cupcake/cake picks etc.

By pure coincidence it was my turn to be the featured artist for this challenge and I couldn't be happier about it. I chose to make a shadowbox card using bees of course!

I started by making the front to my card.

I measured paper to be 5"x8" and then scored at 3/4" adn 1 1/4", flipped it around to the other side and scored and the same marks.

Then I glued designer paper to it just slightly smaller that the blue front panel. My DP measured 5 1/4"x 4 3/4".

I used 5727 – Nested Oval Dies to cut the opening.

Do NOT throw that piece away.  You can surely use it to matte something else.

(For me, my honeycomb paper is precious)

I used the 4"x3 1/4 " oval for this but you can use whatever size suits what you want on the front and what you want to be able to see on the inside.

Next, I cut a back panel in the same size and scored at the same lengths.  I just used white cardstock for the back.  It doesn't show from the front and matched what I wanted on the backside of the back panel which you'll see later.  I played around with what I thought I'd want on the inside.  I ended up using that flower on the outside front panel.  I felt it was too busy with the paper I used here.

I used dies from 5588 – Journal Oval Frames Die Set, 5589 – Journal Pocket Die Set, 5591 – Journal Rectangle Frames Die Set and 5592 – Harvest Journal Die Set. The little bees are from 5561 – Birds and Bugs Set and the sentiment is from 5279 – Be Happy Laugh Lines.  The bees are on strips of acetate that I doubled up to give it enough stability.  I adhered them to the back panel BEFORE gluing the front panel to the back.

Next, I decorated the front. The sentiment The Queen is from 5517 – Sassy Laugh Lines and it's stamped on a die from 5588 – Journal Oval Frames Die Set . The cute little banners are from 5719 – FB Fence & Window Set.



Now, on the back of the back panel I also wanted to decorate. The verses are both stamped on dies from  5543 – Journal Template Die Set and the star is from that set too.  Happy Birthday comes from 5735 – Birthday Sentiment Set and Everyone was thinking it is from 5517 – Sassy Laugh Lines.

Happy Birthday Bonnie!!

Here's to many more!

Bee Happy and Thankful from Art Impressions!

 Hello Ai fans!

Happy Sunday!

Today I have two cards to share with you.
The first is an all occasion card. 
You could send this one to anyone for any reason. 
Bees just make me happy! 
Bee Happy!

The bees are from 5561 – Birds and Bugs Set.  Though I'm still hoping for a full set of Bees, sentiments and bee themed stamps from Bonnie,  this set has made me VERY happy.
I used the second to the smallest rectangle from 5724 – Nested Rectangle Dies to cut out the sentiment.

It's mounted on foam tap on a sweet die from 5543 – Journal Template Die Set.

The adorable bear (and his teeny little be friend) are from the last round of Freebie stamps.  Every time you spend $30 or more on the Art Impressions website, you can select a free stamp.  There are usually 6 to choose from.  Currently, there is an amazing set of birds.

I used the Bleed Proof White and WOSC Wink of Stella Glitter Clear Brush Pen – Clear to add interest to the dripping honey.  I'm not sure why the Stella looks so brown in the photo. Sorry about that.  It's really just a sparkly, shimmery color in real life.

My second card was a Thank You for a coworker friend who gave me a gift.

This BEE-U-T-FUL headband is the reason I needed this Thank You card.  How sweet!

Here's a little "behind the scenes" tip.  Although you don't see it,  I used the largest 5725 – Nested Square Dies.  My bee paper is precious to me and I don't want to waste any of it.  I used the square die to cut out the center of the yellow honeycomb paper so that I can use that on another card in the future.  It gives me more use out of a sheet of paper and it also cuts down on the weight of the card which can save postage.  Win/win.

Bee Kind, ALWAYS!

 Hello Ai fans!

Today I'm going to ask you to BEE KIND...

ALWAYS

I used several sets on my card.  On the front I used

5562 – Journal Letter Die Set

5543 – Journal Template Die Set

and

5561 – Birds and Bugs Set

On the inside I used 5072 – Block Letters Die Set.

I've been a bee fanatic since I was a teenager.

I was so excited when I saw these little bees!

The possibilities are endless with these letter die sets.

You can create ANY words you want.  Another great thing is that 

Art Impressions has a lot of international fans.  Unlike the sentiment stamps

which are all in English, they can create words in their native language for 

friends and family.  So cool!

Enjoy your Sunday,  do something crafty and remember...

Bee Kind!

A Bunch of Bees (and bugs) from Art Impressions

 Hello Ai fans!

Today I'm sharing 3 cards.

One is my card for the Stencils and Masks challenge and the other 2
were made for friends.

I used the 5561 – Birds and Bugs Set on all 3 of my cards.  I also used the 5562 – Journal Letter Die Set on all of them.  I have a tip for the little letters below.

For this card, I mounted the letters onto the banner from 5463 – Slimline Dies Set.

I don't really own any stencils so I decided to get creative and make my own.

I used a honeycomb die that I have and I cut it on some heavyweight cardstock.

I then used washi tape to hold my stencil down.  I inked over it with some yellow ink by using a sponge.

Viola! A homemade stencil that I really liked!

For my next card I stamped the bees on a piece a die cut using 5061 – Square Double Stitched Dies.
This card was made for a friend who let my 24 year old son dig through her record collection before she got rid of it. He was so excited and came home with about a dozen albums.  We wanted to thank her for thinking of him.

Here's my tip to make your life easier.

You know those sticker sheets (invoices) you get from Ai?  What do you do with them?  Probably just throw them away.  I glued some cardstock to mine and then die cut my letters out of it.  I didn't need it all for these cards so the leftover scrap has been filed away for another day.  Now you have letters that are like stickers.  No need for fussing with trying to neatly get glue on the back of these small letters.

I'm ALL about recycling what you can. A while back a friend gave me the prettiest bee blanket.

This heart on my card was the tag on it.  It was way too cute to just throw out so I saved it knowing I'd find a use for it one day.



The day arrived when I found out a former co-worker was ill.  I sent this to him hoping it would brighten his day.  I used a micron pen to draw the flight lines of the bees.  In order to make sure my letters are even I use a ruler to place them.

I hope you will BEE inspired by my cards and will join in on the challenge.
See you next Sunday!