Happy Fall and Sale Announcement

Greetings friends.  I wanted to share with you a sale happening over on the Impression Obsession site that starts today and extends through Sunday.  You can save 25%.  It is a great time to do a little Christmas shopping for those crafters on your list (or even yourself).

Impression Obsession

I also wanted the chance to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.  If you are traveling, I wish you very safe travels. 

My card today uses a favorite Impression Obsession image.  It is an older tree stamp designed by Leigh Hannan.  I painted the image with some Twinkling H20's (remember those?), spritzed it with water and then stamped it onto some watercolor paper.  Underneath the tree, I panted a ground using some regular watercolor paints.  To finish the card, I added a Fall sentiment.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Impression Obsession Items Used:
Riley Tree J2053 http://shrsl.com/1z76j
Happy Fall A13071 http://shrsl.com/1z76o

IO Challenge- Holiday Wishes

Greetings friends.  It is time for another challenge, and this time the theme is "holiday wishes."  Do you make holiday cards?  Are they finished or still on your "to do" list?  I hope you are inspired by the designer cards today!

For my card today, I wanted to use the super-cute penguin die.  Of course, it isn't enough to have a penguin.  You also have to also accessorize him! I had to add the hat and coffee cup from the Snowman Accessories die set and a scarf from the Penguin Outfits die set.  The nice thing about the two accessory sets is that you can use them interchangeably between the penguin and snowman.  After all, everyone needs to be stylish.

To make the card, I cut out the pieces of my penguin and colored the nose and feet with Copic markers.  I also edged the white body with a grey marker and the cheeks with a pink marker.
Next, I cut out the hat in red paper and then again in white so that I could make a striped hat.  For the coffee cup, I made sure to add a glossy gel pen to the lid to make it look like the lid was plastic.

For the background, I added some of the Primitive Snowflakes cut from glossy paper.  I liked the contrast of the glossy snowflakes on the matte background. Here is a close up:

The last step was to add a rhinestone to the center snowflake and add my sentiment in black ink.

Impression Obsession Items Used:
Penguin DIE 889-V
Penguin Outfits DIE 888-O
Snowman Accessories DIE 885-Q
Primitive Snowflakes DIE 893-YY
Stamp from clear stamp set CL973 Holiday Tree 


Need more Holiday inspiration?  Stop by the Impression Obsession blog for a full list of participating designers as well as information on how to join the challenge.

IO Challenge- So Thankful

Greetings friends.  The latest Impression Obsession themed challenge is "So Thankful." I thought it would be a good time to revisit an old (but good) stamping technique....stamp kissing.

In order to created this effect, you first start with a solid stamp.  I chose a stamp that had many solid leaves:

I inked it with some light brown ink and then set it aside while I inked my patterned stamp.  I chose a marble background that I absolutely love.  In case you didn't know, Impression Obsession bought all the designs from Serendipity Stamps.  If you were looking for their designs, you can find them at IO!  Here is what the marble background looks like.  Can't you imagine all the ways you can use this stamp?

I inked my marble stamp with blue, purple and green ink.  To make my leaves marbled, I touched the inked leaves  to the inked marble background (stamp kissing).  The pattern of the marble transfers to the leaves.  Next, I stamped the newly patterned leaves onto cream cardstock and edged the paper with brown ink.  Simple!

Want to see more thankful inspiration?   Visit the Impression Obsession blog.  There is a complete list of participants there as well as instructions of how you can also join the challenge.

Impression Obsession Items Used:
Leaves Silhouette K23047
Marble Background- Waves SS-752-L
Thankful B14798