First Communion Banner from Art Impressions

 Hello Ai fans!

This was a first for me.

I had a friend ask for a First Communion Banner.

This is pretty foreign to me, so I pulled out lots of my Art Impressions stamps and especially the dies.

She said she wanted her son's banner to be really unique and stand out from the rest.

I hope I did it justice. I've never actually seen one.
(all Art Impressions products are linked at the bottom of this post)

Working from top to bottom, I used an assortment of Art Impressions Dies and capped things off with two stamps from the 5419 – Bible Icons Set 1. The church and roof were completely free handed with the help of my paper trimmer. 

The stained glass windows are my favorite part, although those tiny little doves are a very close second. I hope this is something that they save and he treasures. He'll be wearing a little navy blue suit with brown shoes so I used my very old Sizzix doll die to try to recreate Michael.

Tara's Bridal Shower!

We celebrated my niece Tara's bridal shower yesterday and this was the card that I made for her.

My sister sent me all of her inspiration photos and I did my best to incorporate her colors and flower theme as well as little personal touches like her love of cats and dogs.

LOVE is actually gold and not black as it appears. I decided on a first for me. I cut the cat and dog out of patterned paper instead of a colored cardstock or white cardstock that I colored, like I've done in the past. I really think they're cute this way.

On the inside I created a pocket to put her check in.

One of her wishes was to have a large ribbon hat so they asked guests to wrap with lots of bows. Since I was only doing a card/cash I created a fancy bow to attach to the envelope. The pink bow came from a yard sale the day before (score!) and then I added lots of curling ribbon in all of her fun colors.

Just a Mermaid and Her Treasures!

 Hello Ai fans!

I've loved this little mermaid since the moment I saw her.

How precious is this card for a little girl's birthday?

Or a big girl...we can all love mermaids!

I know we often hear about octopuses collecting little trinkets and sparkly things but I kind of feel like mermaids probably do that too. I made sure to deck out her space with all sorts of shells and treasures.

Even though my card has a lot going on, I feel like she is still the star. The dies that come with this set cut a little opening in her arms to hold her beloved conch shell or treasure chest or anything else you might think she'd enjoy.

I recently did an Easter craft at school and took one of my chalk palettes. It reignited my interest in them. I used them to add some subtle color to my embossing folder and die cuts.

Do you repurpose items from around your house for your cards? For the fish netting here, I used a sleeve that 3 heads of garlic came in.

This last photo is just for fun. When my daughter saw my card she remarked that it looked like our tissue box.  LOL! Maybe Joel uses Kleenex too and was inspired by the box for his paper! 

P.S. Let me tell you! I DID NOT SPEND ALMOST $9.00 on this tiny bag of shells that I added to my card. Over 10 years ago, these were gifted to me by a co-worker. I can't believe they're still available and I can't believe how expensive they are. Thank goodness for Art Impressions VERY reasonably priced 5329 – Beach Mini Dies. I can color those however I like and make as many as I want.

I made a second, slightly different version because I remembered that I had the nautical wax melt stamper and wanted to add that. I like this version too.

Copics used:

G40, BG02, BG07, E34, RV42, RV52, R000, R85, Y04, Y15

Marvy LePlume:

R810 IVORY, R812 APRICOT, OR821 BEIGE

Armfuls Baby Cards from Art Impressions

 Hello Ai fans!

Our current challenge here on the blog is called ABC, 123. Use Letter or Number dies in some way on your project.

Today I've made a slimline trifold card.  When I first saw the new letter and number dies from Art Impressions, I instantly thought about children's blocks.

I used square dies along with the mini baby dies and slimline dies to create my trifold card.

I created a baby boy version and then I created a more neutral version because I have a coworker expecting twins and we don't know the gender/s yet.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to these letter and number dies. You can spell out anything you like with them. I hope you're inspired to join in our challenge. You could be the next winner of a free stamp set.

GOAT Milestone Birthday Cards from Art Impressions

 Hello Ai fans!
We're about to wrap up our Milestone Birthdays Challenge #400 here on the Art Impressions Blog.

I hope you were able to create and enter something for your chance to win one of 5 free stamp sets...some, retired Throwbacks!

I have 2 cards today. One is a 30th birthday card and one is my Father-in-law's 89th birthday card. I know we generally think of milestones as 40, 50, 60 but hey...once you hit 80? I feel like everything after that is a milestone and you are so fortunate.

I chose to go with GOAT cards.

For those of you who don't know, GOAT is an acronym for Greatest of All Time!

I used the current Dwellings Freebie barn and a retired freebie goat.

Inside I used 3 sentiments from the Mini Birthday Sentiment set.

The letter and number dies are a brand new release. You can find the links below. I love these new sets so much. You can literally spell out anything you want with these fun dies.

My FIL grew up in farm country. Although his parents owned a restaurant and not a farm, he enjoys all things country and is proud to call himself a country boy, even though he had a corporate job and traveled the world.

I colored my barn and goat with colored pencils and added the lines on the barn and some specks in the dirt with a good old #2 pencil.

You still have over 24 hours to enter. Don't miss out!

New Baby card from Art Impressions

Hello Ai fans!

One of my coworkers recently had a baby.
We didn't initially have time to plan a shower for her because Baby D came REALLY early.

Fortunately, everything was okay. She's back to work now and we had time to plan a shower this time.

I wasn't sure what type of card I wanted to make for her until I saw her invitations.

The Pooh on my card was cut out of her invite and I proceeded from there.

I knew instantly that I wanted a red and yellow card to match Pooh. The Valentine paper worked perfect for this. Then I used a die set from another company to make the HUNNY pot. I spelled out HUNNY using the Journal Letter die set.

Of course if there's honey on your card then you MUST have BEES!!
And how do bees make honey, from flowers of course.

I used Watercolor Paper from Art Impressions to create the pot and used Tombow markers to WC it.

I used cardstock and Tombow markers to color the bees and flower images. All colors and products are linked below.

I used Wink of Stella on the bees wings and then added some Glossy Accents to them and the honey pot.

 

New Belly Band Bunny card from Art Impressions

 Hello Ai fans!

There are some fun new releases on the Art Impressions website.

Today I've used the brand new 5804 – Decorative Belly Bands.
There was a delay in shipping initially, so my card is a bit late for Valentine's Day.

This would be SO CUTE as an Easter card though. Just swap out the sentiment with one from one of your favorite Easter sets. If the pink paper isn't your thing, Art Impressions has lots of pretty Easter sets or basic pads that have other beautiful spring colors and patterns in them.

Ai Paper Pads

I love that Art Impressions is offering so many die sets now. They really compliment their adorable images and help create such a finished and special look to your cards and craft projects. I don't think that I could pick a favorite.