Stamptember Celebration with Memory Box and Simon Says Stamp

Greetings friends.  Simon Says Stamp is having a month-long celebration called "Stamptember," and this week celebrates an exclusive stamp set from Memory Box.  It is available while supplies last.

I made two cards to celebrate the new release:

 

The first card uses the new stamp set with watercolor paper, Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers and a waterbrush.  I wanted to color it so that it had a more autumnal feel to it.

 

For the second card, I colored around the flowers rather than the flowers themselves.  I tried to make a card that was very different from the first to show the versatility of the stamp set.  I stamped the flowers onto watercolor paper and then colored around the flowers with a Zig marker before roughly cutting around the image.

Want to see more inspiration of how to use the stamp set?  Visit the Simon Say Stamp blog or the Memory Box Outside the Box Blog.

Simon Says Stamp
Memory Box

IO Challenge- Falling Leaves

Greetings friends.  Today's challenge is all about celebrating Fall.  Yeah!  It is definitely my favorite season. 

For today's card, I wanted to use one of the new Fall dies:

Today's project is a clean and simple card.  The die is a birch tree that would look great in white, but I decided to go with brown to show off the Fall leaves a bit better.  I cut out leaves in brown, yellow, orange and red before gluing them to my wreath.  To finish the card, I added a sentiment from the Holiday Words set.

Impression Obsession Items Used:
Birch Tree Circle DIE849-W
Holiday Words 3189-LG

Want to see more cards with the "falling leaves" theme?  Visit the Impression Obsession blog for the list of participating designers.

Impression Obsession blog 

IO Fall Die Hop Day 2

The Impression Obsession Fall Die Release Celebration starts today! Each day (August 31st/September 1st ) you can find a list of participants on the Impression Obsession Blog at 6am. Every single blog will have a $25 gift certificate to give away for the event - so the more you comment through our Release Celebration the more chances to win! All comments for all of the event days will be open until Thursday September 5th at midnight CT. All winners will be announced on Friday September 6th.

All of the new dies are available now! You can find them all HERE

SALE!

DON'T FORGET!!!  There is a sale going on at the IO site through Monday.  The 25% off even includes the new dies.  If there is something that interests you, I would suggest getting it this weekend to make use of the savings.

For today's cards, I decided to go a bit inspirational.  After all, who doesn't need a little pick me up from time to time?

For my first card, I wanted to use the new Monarch butterfly die.  I didn't want to paper-piece this die because let's face it, there are a lot of holes!  Instead, I took a scrap piece of watercolor paper that I had painted with blue, brown and green watercolor paints and glued it behind the black butterfly outline.  I then cut out my die again out of kraft cardstock and took the four pieces of kraft cardstock that went around the outside of the butterfly and glued them onto my decorative watercolor paper as well.  I guess I did do some paper-piecing, but it was just the four large pieces around the butterfly and not all the tiny holes inside the butterfly.  Does that make sense?

As a final step, I popped up my butterfly with foam tape and added my sentiment.

For my second card, I did do some paper-piecing, but it was okay since the pieces were large.  I cut my flower out of black cardstock and then glued it onto a square piece of kraft cardstock.  I then colored the center of the flower with a yellow Copic marker.  It showed up really well on the kraft cardstock.  

Next, I cut out my flower again using watercolor paper I had colored with Colorburst powders.  I then paper-pieced the petals into the black frame.  To finish the card, I popped up the flower with foam tape and added my sentiment.

Impression Obsession Items Used:

Butterfly card:

Monarch Frame DIE864-YY

What If D13445

Floral card:

Daisy Frame DIE854-Y

Wildflower D17156

Don't forget to visit the other designers participating in the new release hop.  There are tons of chances to win prizes!

Impression Obsession Blog 

Angela Bode 

Anna Wight 

Daniela Dobson

Dina Kowal 

Giovana Smith

Ilina Crouse

Jeanne Streiff

Laura Fulcher (you are here)

Laura Williams

Lynda Pleckan 

Susan Wymer

Vicki Garret 

IO Fall Die Hop Day 1

 

Welcome to the Impression Obsession Fall Die Release Celebration!

 

The Impression Obsession Fall Die Release Celebration starts today! Each day (August 31st/September 1st ) you can find a list of participants on the Impression Obsession Blog at 6am. Every single blog will have a $25 gift certificate to give away for the event - so the more you comment through our Release Celebration the more chances to win! All comments for all of the event days will be open until Thursday September 5th at midnight CT. All winners will be announced on Friday September 6th.

 

All of the new dies are available now! You can find them all HERE

 

SALE!

DON'T FORGET!!!  There is a sale going on at the IO site through Monday.  The 25% off even includes the new dies.  If there is something that interests you, I would suggest getting it this weekend to make use of the savings.

 

I am so very excited to show you some of the newest dies.  I absolutely love Halloween, so today I wanted to show you three cards.  The first card could be used for Halloween, but honestly with that sentiment, you could use it all year!

 

For my bat card, I started with the new rectangle frame die.  It is my favorite die of the new release.  I am a sucker for anything practical, and I know I will be using that die over and over.  When you cut out the frame, you end up with an outer frame as well as an inner rectangle, both of which are stitched along the edges.  I cut out the frame twice...once in dark grey and once in light grey before piecing the two together on my card.

 

I cut out my bat and assembled him before layering him on a cream circle that was edged with Antique linen Distress Oxide Ink.  Finally, I added a sentiment that makes me smile.

 

 

Impression Obsession came out with a kitty die set that comes with two cats.  I used one on the first cat card and one on the second.

For my first cat card, I layered all of my die cut pieces before popping up the pumpkin with foam tape and adding my sentiment.

 

The second cat card uses the new plaid tag, which cuts out a background tag as well as a side tag piece that creates an embossed plaid pattern.

The left hand panel of the card was created with the retro circle cover a card background in orange ink.  As you know, I love creating my own patterned paper!  I then popped up the tag with foam tag, added a twine bow and added my sentiment.

 

Impression Obsession Items Used:

 

Bat card:

Bat DIE848-J 

Large Frame

Going Batty C19278

 

Cat card #1 (When Black Cats Prowl)

Two Kitties DIE876-W

Spider Web Panel DIE873-YY

Black Cats Prowl C5469

Jack O'Lantern Set DIE340-T

Cat card #2 (Purrfectly Frightful)

Two Kitties DIE876-W

Plaid Tag DIE868-Z

Retro Circle CC352

Purr-fectly Frightful B5479

 

 

Don't forget to visit the other designers participating in the new release hop.  There are tons of chances to win prizes!

 

Impression Obsession Blog

Angela Bode 

Anna Wight

Dina Kowal 

Giovana Smith 

Ilina Crouse 

Jeanne Streiff

Laura Fulcher (You are here)

Laura Williams

Lynda Pleckan 

Susan Wymer 

Vicki Garrett 

Impression Obsession Sale!!!

Huge weeklong sale over on the Impression Obsession site..

25% off Everything!!!!

Sale runs NOW - Mon, Sep 2 at midnight EST

You can find their website here, or click the picture below.  Be sure to use coupon code "LABOR" when checking out to save your 25%

Now is the perfect time to pick up those stamps or dies you have been looking at as well as anything you need for the upcoming holiday season!

IO Challenge- Moody Blues (Blue Cards)

Greetings friends.  Today is all about celebrating the color blue.  It might be hot outside, but I decided to go with a winter card.

For my card today, I made my own stripes by using Eclipse masking tape and creating diagonal lines.  I then sponged an assortment of Distress Oxide inks in the open areas to make the stripes.  Hint... add a lot of color with a sponge so that the ink smooths out and looks like printed paper.  I really like the look of a one layer card, so I really appreciate giving the impression of layers of paper, even though there aren't any.

Next, I added snowflakes and a sentiment from one of the newest clear stamp sets.  I used blue versafine ink and then colored in parts of the sentiment with a blue colored pencils.  As a final touch, I added rhinestones to the center of snowflakes.

Want to see more blue card ideas?  Visit the Impression Obsession blog for a list of all the participating design team members.

Impression Obsession Items Used:
Snowflake Sparkle CL972

IO Challenge- Warm Colors

Greetings friends.  The heat has inspired a warm color card challenge (red, orange, yellow).  I had to take a picture from the side because I used metallics, and it is really hard to get the shine to show up in pictures.

To make the card, I started with 140lb watercolor paper and added random splotches of red, orange and gold watercolors to the paper.  I let the colors blend with each other and then dry completely.

Once the paper was completely dry, I embossed the Mandala design in gold embossing powder.  I don't know about you, but sometimes when I want a sentiment to be the focal part of the card, I am a bit at a loss of what to do in the rest of the card space.  The mandala designs work really well to provide a backdrop for your sentiment.

As a final touch, I added my saying with black ink and added some layers of cardstock.  I made sure to add a layer of gold metallic paper to really bring out the gold embossing and the metallic gold watercolor paint I used.

Want to see more warm card ideas?  Visit the Impression Obsession blog to see the list of participating designers.

Impression Obsession Items Used:
Mandala 3 L23065
Faith Love Hope C21232 

IO Challenge- Things that Fly

Greetings friends!  Today it is time for another challenge.  This time the theme is "Things that Fly."  I have a feeling that a lot of the designers are going to use the new Spaceship die, because let's face it, it is super-cute!

To make my card, I made a galaxy background with some glossy paper and some dye ink reinkers.  After I covered the glossy cardstock with colored inks, I covered most of it with black ink so that just a little bit of the colors peeked through.

For the spaceship, I cut it out of silver metallic cardstock and added a watercolored strip for the body of the ship.  Here is a closeup of the ship and the watercolor paper I had made:

The paper is 140lb watercolor paper painted with various watercolor paints including white and metallic gold paint.  I thought it gave the look of marbling.

It is hard to tell from the picture, but I added a piece of acetate over the alien so that it looked like an enclosed bubble surrounding the alien. 

To finish the card, I added some stars, an alien colored with Copic markers, an engine ignition colored with Copic markers and a die cut sentiment.  The sentiment actually says "season's greetings," but I cut off the "season's" part of the sentiment.

Don't forget to visit the Impression Obsession blog to see a list of all the participating designers.


Impression Obsession Items Used:
Spaceship DIE833-V 
Planets (star dies) DIE829-E
Alien  DIE816-C
Holiday Bottom Word Edgers  DIE233-M 

Impression Obsession Die Release Hop- Day 2

Welcome to the Impression Obsession Summer Die Release Celebration!

The Impression Obsession Summer Die Release Celebration starts today! Each day (July 8th &  9th) you can find a list of participants on the Impression Obsession Blog at 6am. There will be a $25 gift certificate given away for the event chosen randomly from all of the team blog posts. - so the more you comment through our Release Celebration the more chances to win! All comments for all of the event days will be open until Sunday July 14th at noon CT. All winner will be announced on Tuesday July 16th.

All of the new dies are available now! You can find them all HERE

Greetings friends.  For today's card, I was inspired to play with the new garden bench die.  It comes with all the plants, pots, grass, watering can, flowers, etc.  You can really build the scene in any way that you want.

I started by cutting a stitched circle out ow white cardstock using the new Scalloped Stitched Circles nesting dies.  I then added a post-it in the center and sponged blue panpastel to the top and brown panpastel chalk to the bottom to "ground" my images.

Next, I cut out a bunch of gardening elements from 140lb watercolor paper and colored them with Zig Clean Color brush markers.  to finish the card, I added a bit of natural twine.  Here is a close up:

 
 Happy die cutting!

Impression Obsession Items Used:
Garden Bench DIE825-V 
Scalloped Stitched Circles DIE831-YY

Impression Obsession Die Release Hop- Day 1

Welcome to the Impression Obsession Summer Die Release Celebration!

The Impression Obsession Summer Die Release Celebration starts today! Each day (July 8th &  9th) you can find a list of participants on the Impression Obsession Blog at 6am. There will be a $25 gift certificate given away for the event chosen randomly from all of the team blog posts. - so the more you comment through our Release Celebration the more chances to win! All comments for all of the event days will be open until Sunday July 14th at noon CT. All winner will be announced on Tuesday July 16th.

All of the new dies are available now! You can find them all HERE

  
Greetings Friends. Impression Obsession has new dies to share with you, and you are going to love them! Today I went with a classic sun and cloud die because I thought they paired beautifully with my favorite sentiment from the new release. I thought it was quite inspirational. 

To make the card, I started with 140lb watercolor paper and colored it with blue watercolor paint. I then blotted it to remove some of the paint and to make it look like clouds in the sky.

Next, I added my sentiment and sun before popping up the cloud with foam tape. I really like the sun and cloud because of the extra stitched details.

Impression Obsession Items Used:
Stitched Clouds DIE819-N
Big and Little Suns DIE817-V
World by Storm C17271