Fall is for Fairy Houses from Art Impressions!

Happy Sunday everyone!
Do you love these new Fairy Houses as much as I do?

I created two cards to share with you today.

Both of these little houses nest perfectly into the new leaf frame die.

For the first card I used the white leaves from the first frame I cut and colored them with Copic markers.  For the mushroom house I cut the leaf inserts from colored paper.  I couldn't tell the difference between the two so moving forward, if I've cut the frame in white, I'll use the little pieces that are scraps and just color them.  That will save on colored cardstock.

I love that the new frame creates a frame yet also has some stand alone dies that you can cut.

There's a complete list of supplies and links below if you'd like to give something like this a try.  These are perfect for any time of year.

5783 – Fall Leaf Frame Die Set
5790 – Fairy Houses
5794 – Whimsical Flowers
5788 – Whimsical Mushrooms
5063 – Rectangle A2 Double Stitched Dies
Bleed Proof White


Copics used:

Mushroom House:

Y21, Y26, YG03, YG25, E17, E31, E55, YR15, R83, R89 TT Chocolate

Fairy House:

Y21, Y26, YG03, YG25, BG000 BG02, YR15, E17, E31, E55, R83, R89, W2, W5, W6 TT Sky Blue, TT Chocolate

Livin' that Lake Life! from Art Impressions

Serenity is found when you escape to your favorite place.

My father-in-law has been having a bit of a rough time lately.

His happy place was always the lake where he built
 a home for his family in the 1980's.
For the past 20+ years we've rented a cottage on that lake so he could "come home" each summer.  No one rents their cottage anymore and he can no longer travel from Florida so it's the end of an era.

I used 5093 – Dock Circlet MTF and 5064 – Circle Double Stitched Dies.

I made him a card that hopefully brought back some happy memories for him.

He's a retired "IBMer" and decided it was worth an hour commute each way Monday through Friday to raise his family on a peaceful, serene lake.  I jumped outside my comfort zone and watercolored this image.  I didn't do it the Art Impressions Way but I did use Tombow Markers.

Tombows used:

856, 679, 528, 158, 126, 526, 992, #4 Brush



As a bonus,  I also have a card that I made to thank my online friend Ruthan Plant who has sent me several, wonderful, cards and gifts over the past few years!

I used a retired Sailboat exclusive (one of her favorites) along with dies from the 5325 – Sail Mini Dies.

Gnomes and Bees from Art Impressions

 Hello and Happy Sunday!

Do you love these new Gnomes as much as I do?
And, yes.  Just so you all know, I can see you furrowing your eyebrows and hear you muttering, "Well that's a silly question," in my head! lol!

Of COURSE you love them!

Gnomes live in the woods so I added lots of bees. Gnomes love flowers and so do bees, so I'd assume that Gnomes love bees too. The teeny little bee is from a retired freebie.  He sits on a flower that a sweet little bear is holding.  I only inked up the bee and placed him on the gnomes nose.  It wasn't easy, but it was worth it.  Maybe someday Bonnie will make us a full bee set with everything from a teeny little cluster of 3 bees that we could ink up as one, two or three...all the way up to larger bees that could be the star of our cards!

One very cool feature of this new Gnome set is that one of them is a Front and Back stamp which means you can create a window showing him from the front and on the inside of the card where you see his backside.

The same goes for the little bees from Birds and Bugs. Since some face left and some face right, you can make those F&B stamps too!

I love using clear acetate to make it look like certain images are flying or floating.  You just have to love bees!

5785 – Gnomes Set
5794 – Whimsical Flowers
5797 – Little Things Sentiment Set
5463 – Slimline Dies Set
5561 – Birds and Bugs Set
5543 – Journal Template Die Set
4967 – WC Fence Dies
5724 – Nested Rectangle Dies

Copics used:

B00, Y11, Y15, E33, E47, E53, YG13

Sitting Amongst the Flowers from Art Impressions

Are you feeling blue?

Everyone at Art Impressions is.

But...in a good way!

The latest challenge on the blog is Feeling Blue.

We've been challenged to use lots of blue on our projects. On my two cards I used blue paper, paper with blue flowers, I colored some of my flowers blue and I have a blue flower pot.

For my first card, I took the shutters from 5770 – FB Farm Fence Die Set, cut them in half and turned them sideways because they made me think of a flower box planter.  I then filled them with flowers from the new 5794 – Whimsical Flowers.

On my first card, the 5776 – FB Sitting Girl is sitting on the fence.  On my next card I perched her on the window sill. I know that may seem a little far fetched but we'll call it artistic license.  Actually, when I was in Austria this spring our hotel room had a ledge outside the window that would have been wide enough to sit on.  I wouldn't recommend it though since we were on the second floor...lol!  We used it as a fridge since we didn't have one in our room.

Inside the house there's a flower pot and watering can from 5792 – WC Mini Journal Containers.

The little tufts of grass are not from Art Impressions but I wanted to give a little shout out.  I recently took a trip to Buffalo and was lucky enough to visit Buffalo Stamps Store.  One of the things I purchased was Scene Building: Grass Tufts Dies.  This store is INCREDIBLE!!  There are so few Brick and Morter stores left and it was so fun to wander (in awe) at all of the product sitting right in front of you.  If you're ever remotely close to that area I highly recommend you pay them a visit.  They carry Art Impressions stamps.  I didn't buy any of those because I already owned them all but some were retired so that's a huge bonus for a fan!  I wasn't able to link below from the Buffalo Stamps Store but I did link from Picket Fences.

In case you were wondering, I did not fussy cut all of these little flowers.  I have a Brother Scan and Cut which is great for the WC sets that don't come with dies.

Where I live, it's Fall now.  The last of my flowers are waning.  We'll have a few mums and asters for a bit longer but I'll have to live vicariously through the flowers on my cards until next April.

Art Impressions and Simon Says Stamp 2023 STAMPtember® Exclusive set is HERE!!

Hello everyone and Happy Happy STAMPtember®!

I've been waiting for this day for weeks!

They've finally announced  and shared the amazing new exclusive set from Art Impressions for Simon Says Stamps month long celebration.

This year's set is called SSE23A Apple Cider Set and it's the best set ever!!

This set is a limited time offer and once it sells out it's gone forever. 

I believe I own every STAMPtemper Art Impressions set ever released but this one is for sure my favorite!

I made two shaped cards.  The pumpkin card came about by accident.  I was cutting ovals for Halloween cards to be shared at a later date.  I tossed the ovals onto my table and they resembled a white pumpkin to me.  ...A card is born!

My second card was made using the ancient Sizzix Harvest Bucket.  It was made to coordinate with this set.  It must be 20 years old! (no, I never get rid of anything...lol!)

Her clothes on both cards are partially Copic coloring with Twin Tone accents and paper piecing.

I made one final project.  A birthday tag for a coworker.  We officially start school today. We've been back for two days but the kids arrive today.  I wanted to get her a little treat.  Maple Bourbon Peanuts!

Yum!!

Come Sail Away Thank You card

Hello and happy Sunday.

Our son took up sailing last fall with a friend of his and has really enjoyed it.  He recently went to a 3 day tournament in Canada and stayed with a couple his friend knows.  He wanted me to make a sailing themed thank you card for them.

The catamaran is from MS97 Full Plate from I Brake for Stamps.

The seagulls and sailboats on the inside are from Art Impressions and are from the  5325 – Sail Mini Dies.

He was able to get a picture of his friend on a boat he sailed in a race.  His friend is Canadian and we're American so I loved that the two countries were neck and neck here.  

On the card, I was sure to put Canada in the lead as an extra thank you...lol!

I added 3 other non-descript boats because you can't just have two in a race! 

I hope his friends like it!