Black and Cream Butterfly

I owe my aunt Nan a set of thank you cards, and I am in the process of of designing four cards that look completely different from each other. Sometimes I want to design sets of cards where all the cards coordinate with each other, but this time I wanted to make cards that were all unique and might appeal to her various recipients. We shall see. If the cards clash too much, I might change my mind.

To make the card, I used a Hero Arts butterfly from a set called "Butterflies and Print [CG328]" and papers from the Basic Grey "Little Black Dress" collection. It might be hard to tell from the photo, but the butterfly is popped up with foam tape, and I added a couple of yellow pearls to the Basic Grey flower stickers I added to the card.

IO- Hostess Gift Challenge

Time for something other than a card. The theme this IO challenge is to make a hostess gift. Instead of making a gift, I decorated my gift of wine with a tag. Wine makes such a great gift! Of course, I didn't realize that I was out of tissue paper until I was ready to take the photo. I think it would look much better wrapped with the tag on top. I also wouldn't give the hostess an already opened bottle of wine. :)

For my tag, I stamped a saying from the CL41 Thanks Sentiments clear set and then stamped the grapes (A2112) all around the saying. I colored the grapes with watercolor pencils, blended them with a Dove Blender pen, and sponged purple ink around the edges. I then stamped the wine bottle (D2113) onto scrap paper, colored it with watercolor pencils, sponged around the edges, cut it out, and popped it up onto the tag with foam tape. To finish the project, I colored my natural raffia with a purple Copic marker to match the tag.

Want more hostess gift ideas? Check out what Daniela, Deborah, Dina, Jeanne, Julie, and Kathy, created.

Want to play along? You can find all of the information here, and you could even win a $25 Impression Obsession gift certificate!

Christmas Window

I had the urge to play with new Impression Obsession Starry Window (H8637) today. It is kind of a funny thing because I had one color scheme in mind before I started, and in the end, I used completely different colors. Sometimes I guess you just have to go wherever the creative juices take you!

I colored the window with an assortment of watercolor pencils and then softened the colors with a Dove Blender pen. I then stamped the Cover a Card Wood Grain (CC034) in dark brown ink onto brown cardstock to create a tone-on-tone background. To finish the card, and to add a little pizazz, I added yellow jewels to the centers of the stars and added stickles to the "snow" to make it shimmer.

IO Challenge- Orange

Today, the IO team will be doing an Orange challenge. Normally, I would take that as an opportunity to make a pumpkin card. After all, pumpkins are my favorite things to stamp/color. However, today is my mom's birthday (oh, and the president's too), so I thought it would be better to make a birthday card. A good rule of thumb to live by is "moms always trump pumpkins."

One of the nice things about doing a color challenge is breaking out of your comfort zone. I know I have never made an orange birthday card before!

I know it might not look like it, but I used only one color of orange ink for each of the layers (Versafine Habanero). The color of the paper really affected the color of the ink. Choosing a birthday theme also allowed me to play with the new "Let them Eat Cake" clear set (CL329) by Kalani Allred. The background pattern is the Floral Lines Cover a Card background (CC089).

Need more orange inspiration? Check out what Daniela, Dina, Jeanne, Jenny, Julie, and Kathy created. Be sure to visit the various blogs since many of us chose to use some of the new stamps.

Want to play along? You can find all of the information here, and you could even win a $25 Impression Obsession gift certificate! Please note that the challenge requirements have changed a bit. Now all entries must only use Impression Obsession stamps. Good luck.

Happy Birthday mom!