Friday, December 30, 2016

IO Valentine Blog Hop Day 2


Welcome to the Impression Obsession Valentine Stamp Release Blog Hop!
We have some beautiful new stamps to share AND a Gift Certificate to give away!

The Blog Hop will be posted on the Impression Obsession Blog at 6am EST December 29th & 30th.
Visit our fabulous IO Design Team’s blogs (only one comment per blog please) for a chance to win TWO $25 Gift Certificates!
The more blogs you visit … the better chance you will have to win!!!
No need to comment on the Impression Obsession Blog to enter.
Comment entries will be open until 9pm CT on Sunday January 1st and all winners will be announced January 2nd.
Good luck!










Greetings friends.  Today is the second and last day of the hop.  Be sure to follow the directions to be entered for prizes.


 


















Today I went for clean and simple for my Valentine.  I really like the stamp and sentiment because they could be used year-round instead of just for Valentine's Day.  


 


To make the card, I stamped the Lovely Flower and colored it heavily with Prismacolor Pencils.  I cut out the image, popped it up, and added some Glossy Accents to the heart.  I then added the Hello My Friend sentiment.  Quick.  Easy.....  and a good way to let someone know how much they mean to you.
Don't forget to visit the other designers for a chance to win prizes!

Hop List:

Thursday, December 29, 2016

IO Valentine Blog Hop


Welcome to the Impression Obsession Valentine Stamp Release Blog Hop!
We have some beautiful new dies to share AND a Gift Certificate to give away!
The Blog Hop will be posted on the Impression Obsession Blog at 6am EST December 29th and 30th.
Visit our fabulous IO Design Team’s blogs (only one comment per blog please) for a chance to win TWO $25 Gift Certificates!
The more blogs you visit … the better chance you will have to win!!!
No need to comment on the Impression Obsession Blog to enter.
Comment entries will be open until 9pm CT on Sunday January 1st and all winners will be announced January 2nd.
Good luck!

Greetings friends.  The holidays are over, so it is time to start thinking about Valentines!  I really like Valentines Day because I think it is great to have a holiday dedicated to appreciating those you love.

For my card today, I used the brand new Heart Arrangement image and colored it with an assortment of Copic Markers.  People sometime ask me how I choose which Copic markers to use.  In this case, I stamped the Love is All image, embossed it in white, and painted it with Peerless Watercolor paints.  I then chose Copic markers that were closest in color to my background.

For a bit of accent, I added some Glossy Accents to one of the hearts and popped up my central image with some foam tape.  

Don't forget to visit the other designers for a chance to win prizes!

Hop List:

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Stamping Large Sentiments



Greetings friends.  Today I want to talk about stamping with large sentiments.  It is a topic I have addressed before, but I thought it would be a good time to revisit it.

I absolutely love the large sentiments by Impression Obsession.  There are inspirational ones, funny ones, practical all-occasion ones, and my absolute favorite....quirky.  One of the things I have noticed though when I want to make a large sentiment the focal point of a card, there isn't a lot of space for dies, embellishments, or stamped images.  Plus, I never want to cover up or take away from the impact of the sentiment.

One way to make a saying stand out is to use a soft background out of stamps or stencils.  For my card today, I started with a kraft notecard, placed a Seth Apter stencil from Stencil Girl on top (Urban Insiders Bar Stencil) and sponged it with Hero Arts Unicorn White ink:



It took a really long time for the ink to dry, but once it was, I sponged the whole thing with yellow and red Pan Pastels.  Having the white ink underneath allowed the pattern to show through the chalk.  I wasn't able to capture it on camera, but I finished the design with some gold shimmer Pan Pastel.  Once I was done blending the chalk, I used a white Prismacolor pencil to highlight elements of the stencil design.  I really wanted what I thought of as the "sun rays" to stand out.

As a last step, I added the You are Capable sentiment onto the card with brown VersaFine ink.  If you wanted the sentiment to stand out even more, you could use black ink instead.

Happy holidays everyone!


Thursday, December 15, 2016

IO Challenge- Last Minute Gifts


Wait a minute.  How did Christmas get to be 10 days away?  December has really flown.  If you are in need for a last minute gift, the IO team has some ideas for you today.

For my project, I made a little Christmas paper lantern out of gold metallic cardstock, some vellum, and the new Ornament Winter Scene die.  I added a battery operated light to the center so that I wouldn't set anyone's house on fire.  I thought that might be the best plan.  :) 

The lantern was made out of two pieces of cardstock that each measured 8 1/2" x 4."  I scored them so that each paper had two 4" x 4" sections and one 4" x 1/2" section.  I then die cut each 4" x 4" section with the ornament die and added vellum behind each panel.  When I glued the two pieces of cardstock together, they made a square that fits over a votive candle (there is no top or base to the box).

Another nice thing about the lantern?  It folds flat to fit inside a business envelope:


Need more last minute ideas?  Don't forget to check out the other designers.  There are even two new designers to the team to inspire you!

Thursday, December 1, 2016

IO Challenge-Quick Holiday Cards


I don't know about you, but December came up on me fast.  I know that I will blink a couple of times and Christmas will be here.  Quick and easy Christmas cards can be such a blessing.  Sometimes I get so caught up in layers, die cuts, coloring and bling that each card can take me 30 minutes (at least).  If you are making lots of Christmas cards, that is not going to work!

For my quick and easy Christmas card, I went back to the basics.  When was the last time you just embossed a stamped image and called it a day?  For this card, I stamped the snowflake image and saying with versamark and embossed them in gold powder.  I used some cream metallic paper for the card base and the top layer to give it a little bit more elegance and added some gold mirror paper in the  middle to really amp up the shimmer of the gold embossing powder.  Here is a close up to show the metallic elements a bit better:





 Need more quick card ideas for the holidays?  Don't forget to visit the other designers: