Wild About the Ocean! (Art Impressions Wild About You Challenge)

 Hello Ai fans!

Welcome to my Wild About You post.
For the current Bi-Weekly challenge, we want to see your projects using
wild animals or animal prints on them.

For my wild animals, I chose to use ocean creatures.

The sub and animals are from 5397 – Submarine Cubbies.

With a finger sponge dauber I used several shades of green pigment

ink to sponge a watery background.

The matte around the sponged panel was cut using 
5063 – Rectangle A2 Double Stitched Dies.
Though you can't see it in the photo, the creatures all have Wink of Stella on them.

One great thing about this set is that it comes with coordinating dies so you don't have to fussy
cut all of those little critters. The sub also has a die which cuts out some of the windows

in case you want some of your cute little creatures swimming in and out of it.

I hope this has inspired you to get in touch with your WILD side.

You can win a free stamp set if you're selected as one of our 2 winners!

Elaborate Thank You card

This card was a labor of love and a tremendous undertaking. I wanted it to be really special though. At the end of August, we went to Florida to visit family members. I wanted to make sure I thanked them properly for their hospitality. They chauffeured us all around through terrible traffic, visited places they've been a million times and treated us to wonderful meals. My card represents all of the things we saw and did together with little hidden inside messages. The little ants and fruit represent some of Salvador Dali's paintings because we visited his museum. The aquatic life is from the Florida Aquarium. The birds and foliage are from the Sunken Gardens. The turtle is because my husband and brother-in-law rescued two while we were there. The signpost shows most of the places we visited and the Bigfoot? Well, that's just because my BIL likes him and my husband watched a Bigfoot movie on the plane ride.

The front panel has around 5 layers to it. There is a sheet of acetate and some of the fish and creatures are behind the sheet and some are popped up on top of it. I just love how dimensional it is.

Here you can kind of see just how many layers deep it is.

I didn't keep track of how many different companies products I used but it was a LOT!! I used things that I probably haven't used in 15 years.

I just freehanded Bigfoot to be a big hairy mess...lol! The little turtle is a retired freebie from Art Impressions.

It's fun to repurpose your stamps too. This parrot is really a the Freebie Cockatiel from Art Impressions. I didn't ink his little crown to make him look like the Macaws that we saw. The flamingos are from Kim Hein's (Art Impressions) exclusive Flamingo set. 5751 Let's Fla-Mingle Set.

I forgot to take a photo before writing my personal message so I blocked that out.

Top 10 of 2022 from Art Impressions

 Hello Ai fans!

It's my turn to share my Top 10 cards of 2022.



Here they are, in no particular order.
To see the original posts and find links to products just click each photo.

I hope you enjoy this stroll down memory lane!

I love making masculine cards and don't find them to be the challenge that a lot of people do.
I think growing up in the country and loving all things country like earth tones, wood and
animals helps with that.

This one was made for my son's birthday.  My husband and I never imposed our musical taste

on our children but I was still lucky enough to have had them both grow up to love the Beatles!

This card is a nod to Yellow Submarine and Octopus's Garden.

Love these Valentine's I made for the kids at school.

Mushrooms are one of my favorite things!  Not far behind bees.  I love to eat

them and think they're so beautiful to look at.

Anyone who has followed me through the years on the Design Team knows that several times

a year I make some fairly elaborate cards.  MANY, MANY sets and lots of time involved.

This Charlotte's Web card was one of those.  It was inspired by the Rat Freebie.  He 

reminded me of Templeton.

Koala's couldn't be cuter!

Oh these Matchbooks!  When I first saw them I'll be honest...Yikes!

So tiny and so much work.

Not true.

The dies make these so easy to assemble and now I can't get enough of them!
I've seen some of the other designers Top 10 already and it seems it's unanimous.

Matchbooks for the win!

This one was my daughter's birthday card this year.  She LOVES succulents and fun pots as 

well as her pink Crocs.  Her birthday was in June and she still has this on display in our kitchen.

Of course I had to have a pick with bees on it.

This Crown set is one of my all time favorites.

Two of the bats on this card actually "FLY!"  Click the photo to see the original post and video.
This is another one of those really elaborate cards I love to make.

I hope some of my cards have inspired you over the past year.

I know I always love your cards and get so many ideas from you as well.

Have a wonderful December and cheers to the new year!

See you in 2023!

Slimline Submarine Cubbie from Art Impressions

 Hello Ai fans!

It's time for a new challenge at Art Impressions!

We're keeping it simple.  This is a challenge that everyone should
be able to participate in...both watercolor artists and fans of the regular Art Impressions stamps.

The challenge for the next two weeks is...

I'm so excited to share this newer set called 5397 – Submarine Cubbies. 

The Cubbies are one of my all time favorite series of stamps.

I've been really into metallic papers and shimmers lately.  I've tried to take several
photos at different angles so you can see the shimmer.

It's amazing how different a photo can look depending on the angle.  The photo above looks like the fish are dark blue or black.  You can see in this second photo that there is a light blue metallic paper behind them.

The animals and the sub are all covered in Wink of Stella. 
WOSC Wink of Stella Glitter Clear Brush Pen – Clear

Can you see the difference between these photos and the reflections?  It almost looks like it lights up in real life.  All of the cubbies are so super sweet.  I can't decide which my favorite is.  The bonus is that these sets come with dies to cut these tiny images so that you don't need to worry about fussy cutting.