Thursday, May 18, 2017

IO Challenge- Animal Friends


Greetings friends.  I've come an important conclusion and that is the world just needs more dogs with funny hats.  I don't know about you, but it just makes me happy.

For today's card, I used one of Lindsay Ostrom's new images called Bluebelle.  She has a whole assortment of cats and dogs with floral hats and all of them are good for a smile.  I thought her fun, quirky designs also paired well with a lot of sayings in the Blue Footed Booby clear set.  It was hard to choose, but I finally selected the "weird" saying for this particular card.     Here is a close up of the card so that you can see the background that I stamped as well as the coloring with some Zig Clean Color Brush Markers:

Yesterday I posted a card where I stamped the image with black ink from Impression Obsession and then colored it with Copic markers.  Today I used the same black ink and colored the image with watercolors.  It was really nice that the ink worked with both mediums.

For the background, I paired three different backgrounds with three of the new colors of ink.  It was my intention to stamp the backgrounds with one of the ink trios that would provide a light, medium, and dark shade to the pattern.  My intention was to use Mist, Slate, and Black together.  However, I accidentally grabbed Slate, Taupe, and Black.  I really liked the end result and it was a good reminder that even though the new inks are designed in groups of three that work well together, you do not have to stick to those parameters.  Try lots of different combinations and see what you end up with.

For the patterned background that I created, I started with the Distressed Denim background in the lightest color, added the Scribble Checkerboard background in medium ink, and finished with the Flourishes background in black ink.

Don't forget to visit the other designers for more inspiration!

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

IO New Release Blog Hop Day 3

Welcome to the Impression Obsession 2017 Spring/Summer Release Hop! We have some beautiful new stamps and dies to share AND a Gift Certificates to give away!
The Blog Hop will be posted on the Impression Obsession Blog at 6am EST May 15th - May 17th. Visit our fabulous IO Design Team’s blogs (only one comment per blog please) for a chance to win one of FOUR $25 Gift Certificates!
The more blogs you visit … the better chance you will have to win!!!
Comment entries will be open until 9pm CT on Sunday May 21st and all 
winners will be announced May 22nd.


Today I leave you with my final card of the blog hop.  This one also utilized one of the backgrounds I made during my demo.  The people watching wanted to see what would happen if we embossed a background (Cover a Card Rolling Waves) in black over some Pan Pastel.  I thought it was a great idea and was really pleased with the resulting pattern.

On top of my background, I added stamps from the new Flower Vases clear set as well as the coordinating Flower Vases dies.  The sentiment also comes from the same set.  I stamped everything using the new Impression Obsession black ink and then colored everything with Copic markers.  Yes, you can use Copic markers with the new ink!

Don't forget to visit the other designers to see what they created for the last day of the hop!


Tuesday, May 16, 2017

IO New Release Blog Hop Day 2

Welcome to the Impression Obsession 2017 Spring/Summer Release Hop! We have some beautiful new stamps and dies to share AND a Gift Certificates to give away!
The Blog Hop will be posted on the Impression Obsession Blog at 6am EST May 15th - May 17th. Visit our fabulous IO Design Team’s blogs (only one comment per blog please) for a chance to win one of FOUR $25 Gift Certificates!
The more blogs you visit … the better chance you will have to win!!!
Comment entries will be open until 9pm CT on Sunday May 21st and all 
winners will be announced May 22nd.
Greetings friends.  Last Saturday I was demoing Impression Obsession backgrounds and ideas of what you could do with them.  I wanted to show you how you can get a lot of looks out of one background.  For this card, I used the same background as yesterday's card (Cover a Card Distressed Denim), with the same Baby Blue Impression Obsession ink.  This time though, I split the card diagonally and colored the top left corner with light blue Pan Pastel to look like the sky and the bottom right corner with grey Pan Pastels to look like night.
 
To differentiate the two sides, I also colored the Sun Burst with orange and yellow Prismacolor pencils and the Moon Star with a white Prismacolor pencil and a Stardust pen to add sparkle to the star.  I also added a few dots to look like stars using a silver sharpie. As a last step, I added the Live By sentiment. Here is a close up:
 
Don't forget to check out the other designers for chances to win!

Monday, May 15, 2017

IO New Release Blog Hop- Day 1

Welcome to the Impression Obsession 2017 Spring/Summer Release Hop! We have some beautiful new stamps and dies to share AND a Gift Certificates to give away!
The Blog Hop will be posted on the Impression Obsession Blog at 6am EST May 15th - May 17th. Visit our fabulous IO Design Team’s blogs (only one comment per blog please) for a chance to win one of FOUR $25 Gift Certificates!
The more blogs you visit … the better chance you will have to win!!!
Comment entries will be open until 9pm CT on Sunday May 21st and all 
winners will be announced May 22nd.
Greetings everyone.  I wanted to start the week playing with some of the new Seth Apter designs.  Before I did though, I stamped some white cardstock with the Distressed Denim Cover a Card background using Impression Obsession Baby Blue ink.  I then sponged the left side and bottom of the card with some dark blue Pan Pastel chalk.
Layered on top of the background, I added the Numbered and Net Result border stamps to the side using Impression Obsession Black ink.  On the right side, I added the Atlas and Saturn circles in the same black ink.  .  
Next, I used an older sentiment (My Brain) that unfortunately describes me pretty accurately as of late.  I also thought it worked well with the style of Seth's images.  To finish the card, I added some white gel pen highlights.  Here is a close up of the background and sentiment:

Don't forget to hop on by the other designers for more chances to win.  Good luck!

Thursday, May 4, 2017

IO Challenge- Unlayered Cards (Less than 3 Layers)



Greetings friends.  Today's challenge was all about making a card with few layers.  I decided to go the whole way and not use any layers at all.  I simply took a piece of 140lb watercolor paper and folded it in half to make a card and then stamped and painted on top of it.

I think this new bunny with balloon stamp definitely lends itself to making a birthday card.  However, I decided to change it up a bit.  I have been feeling a bit stressed lately, and so I wanted to make a card just for me.  Have you ever done that?  Instead of making a card with a specific occasion in mind you simply make a card that appeals to yourself.  It is a very liberating process.  I made a card to remind myself to concentrate on joy and simple pleasures rather than anxiety.

To make the card, I stamped the Celebration Bunny J20307 onto my watercolor paper with black Versafine ink.  I let the ink dry completely and then painted it with Zig Clean Color markers and a waterbrush to soften my colors. I then added a sentiment from the Words for Art set (3172-XL).  If you have never looked at that set before, be sure to check it out.  It is loaded with wonderful sentiments.

Because the card had no layers, it was a bit bent when I finished and I had to place the card under a heavy book to flatten it back out.  The bunny stamp is brand new and isn't listed on the website quite yet.  Don't worry though....it will be soon.  It is such a fun image to color.

Don't forget to visit the other designers to see more "unlayered" cards: