Thursday, June 21, 2012

Red, White, and Blue

Is anyone else surprised that we are quickly sliding into July?  I guess it is the perfect time for a red, white, and blue challenge!

For today's card, I broke out one of the new cover a card backgrounds (CC131 We the People) and paired it with one of the three stars from the Stars (K2198) stamp.  I thought that one looked the most "patriotic."  To finish the card, I added the Happy Fourth (A5443) saying.

Need more red, white, and blue inspiration?  Check out what Daniela, Dina, Jeanne, Jenny, and Vicki created. Want to play along? You can find all the information here, and you could even win a $25 IO gift certificate!

 

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Crafter’s Workshop/IO/Balzer Designs Blog Hop!

Today I am participating in a very special blog hop. Crafter's Workshop and Impression Obsession have paired up to bring you stencils and coordinating stamps designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. The nice thing about the stamps and stencils is that they are designed to work independently from each other or as a coordinated set. If you would like to see the stamp and stencil sets as well as how they work both independently or as a set, check out Julie's awesome blog post introducing you to her line.

For my first card, I used the Crafter's Workshop Tickets stencil:



As well as the Impression Obsession Tickets clear stamp set:


I also used the Impression Obsession Just Because saying (B3762) as well as the brand new Rolling Waves Cover a Card background (CC123). I stamped the waves onto the card, stamped the arrows, added the stencil, and sprayed the stencil with my Copic Airbrush. I liked that the transparent quality of the the Copic Markers let the pattern of the Cover a Card to show through.

For my second card, I used the same Ticket stamps and stencils as well as a saying from the CL99 Circle Greetings clear set. This time instead of the airbrush, I used various die inks and a cosmetic sponge to add the color to the card.

Need more inspiration? Be sure to check out the other hop participants:


Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

Mitra Friant

Jeanne Streiff

Daniela Dobson

Vicki Garrett

Jenny Gropp

Dina Kowal

Julie Koerber

Be sure to check out the various posts. Julie will be drawing a random name from the comments to win all 6 stamp sets and stencils.



 

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Gary Robertson

Today the Impression Obsession designers are highlighting the new Gary Robertson images. He has a bunch of new nautical/beach themed images that are a lot of fun for summer. I decided to continue my guy-card theme and used the new Path to the Beach (H1877) stamp along with a saying from the CL48 Greetings Galore clear set.

I first stamped the beach scene with black Versafine ink and colored it with watercolor pencils and a blender pen.  I used the cloud template stencil from Rosie's Road Show to do the sky and edged the bottom with some Antique Linen Distress ink and a sponge.

If you want to see some of the other Gary summer stamps, visit Daniela, Dina, Jeanne, Jenny, Julie, and Vicki's blogs. Want to play along? You can find all the information here, and you could even win a $25 IO gift certificate!

 

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Special Day

Today is a very special day for the Impression Obsession team because today we are showcasing the new dkdesigns images.  These are very special images for IO because they were created by our very own design team member, Dina Kowal.  I am sure that many of you are followers of Dina's blog and are in love with her coloring talent.  Now you can enjoy her collage/vintage style of stamps as well.

For my card, I was inspired by her aviation and travel stamps.  The fact that Fathers' Day is fast approaching also encouraged me to make a masculine looking card.  To make the card, I stamped the background several times with the Passport Collage (D13021) and the top of the card with the Airplane Corner (F13014) and the May Your Trails (D13001) saying.  I also stamped the airplane corner a second time so that I could cut out an extra plane to pop up on the card.  To add a little color to the collage, I colored the planes with a brown watercolor pencil and softened it with a Dove blender pen.

I hope you will visit the other Impression Obsession design team blogs to get a feel for Dina's wonderful new stamp collection.  Daniela, Dina, Jeanne, Jenny, Julie, and Vicki all created something for you to see.


 

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Cacti and Classes


One stamp company that I really enjoy is Stamp A Mania.  They are based in New Mexico, and they have a lot of Southwest images.  Okay, so I might be biased in my love of them!  They used to laser-cut their wood-mount stamps, which made the stamps themselves look like little mini pieces of art.  They don't do that anymore (I'm guessing it wasn't cost effective), but they DO now offer they images in cling.  Yeah!

For my cactus card, I stamped the cactus and flowers onto X-Press It Blending Cardstock and colored it with Copic markers.  I then colored an extra flower, cut it out, and popped it up onto the corner of my card.

I have a couple of classes coming up at Angela's Happy Stamper in case anyone is interested.  The first is an Impression Obsession masculine card class.  I scheduled it before Fathers' Day, and it is on Monday, June 11th from 6:30-8:30pm  Here are the four cards we will be doing:


Next, I am doing my Intro to Copics class on Sunday, June 24th from 12:30-2:30pm.  It has the same information as the Crazy for Copics class I have taught in the past, but I redesigned the cards.  Here are the new cards:
 I didn't change the pen colors you need to bring, so if you have taken the class before and just want a refresher, you should already have all the pens you need.

Have a great weekend!