Impression Obsession - even more July products

We've got even more projects from the new release from Impression Obsession today! If you haven't seen the new release, you can find it all HERE - go check it out! 

I've got some stencils in this release as well, and they're great for the Watercolor Imprints technique that's mentioned in Splitcoaststampers newsletter this week! For this technique you ink up or watercolor your background (I used Distress Oxide inks here), lay the stencil over the wet panel and weigh it down with something flat (like an acrylic block), then let it dry. I love the effect so much! 

Here I used the Dots stencil, and you can see the pattern that it left. 

I used the same technique on this second card with the Fractured stencil. There's a combo of yellow and orange Oxide inks here, which really worked well with the stencil. Here I've used some of Anna's papers and dies, Lindsay's banner stamp, and one of my sentiments! Fun collab, girls!

IO Products:

STEN058 Dots stencil

CL1379 Star Spangled Banners clear stamp set 

PP077 Sweetheart paper pack

CL1383 Listen Doll clear stamp set

DIE1355 Sketchy Inside Out Heart die set

STEN059 Fractured stencil 

DIE1352 Large Postage Stamps die set

PP057 Bzzz paper pack

Two lucky customers who place an Impression Obsession order during release week (June 8th - 14th) will be chosen and will have a very special Impression Obsession prize package added to their orders! 

July 8th, 9th, and 10th the Impression Obsession Team will be sharing new projects with the NEW clear stamps, stencils, papers and dies! You can find a list of participants on the Impression Obsession Blog each day through the event. Here are the links to today's projects:

Impression Obsession Blog

Laura Fulcher

Laura Williams

Robin Clendenning

Angela Bode

Anna Wight

Dina Kowal

Giovana Smith

Jeanne Streiff

When you shop through the affiliate links used here, the company sends a small commission my way at no cost to you as thanks for the referral.
It's a lovely way to partner with these companies that mean so much to our creative community. Everybody wins!

Impression Obsession - more August products

We've got more projects from the new release from Impression Obsession today! If you haven't seen the new release, you can find it all HERE - go check it out! 

With IO's pivot from red rubber stamps I've done some reworking of older art into new clear sets, but this set is all new. I love poppies, and I have often hidden ladybugs in my artwork, so that's a fun touch for me. I hope the sentiments in this set are useful for encouraging someone who needs their chin lifted in some way. I've got most if not all of them on my background panel here! 

I scaled the sentiments smaller so they could be used on tags - by coincidence, Anna designed some smaller tags for this release, so I made a few with the sentiments and small snippets of other new sets. To begin, I stamped the ivy vine up the middle of a watercolor paper panel and did some smooshing, then lined up the dies so each one had a little piece of the stamped and colored areas.

IO Products: 

CL1257 Poppies clear set

CL1254 Maidenhair Fern clear set

CL1253 Ivy Comfort clear set 

DIE1244 Everyday Tags die set

DIE1243 Everyday Tags 2 die set

Two lucky customers who place an Impression Obsession order during August release week (August 15th – 21st) will be chosen and will have a very special Impression Obsession prize package added to their orders!

August 15th & 16th The Impression Obsession Team will be sharing new projects with the NEW clear stamps and dies! You can find a list of participants on the Impression Obsession Blog each day through the event. Here are the links to today's projects:

Impression Obsession Blog
Robin Clendenning
Vicki Garrett
Angela Bode
Anna Wight
Dina Kowal <<<<< that's me!
Jeanne Streiff
Laura Fulcher
Laura Williams

When you shop through the affiliate links used here, the company sends a small commission my way at no cost to you as thanks for the referral.
It's a lovely way to partner with these companies that mean so much to our creative community. Everybody wins!

Impression Obsession - November Team Favorites

The IO Team is back today to share a favorite card from this month's release, so here's mine! Head over to the Impression Obsession Blog for all the links so you don't miss anything.

I know that my color palette gets a little brighter when I'm stressed, so just know that this card was made during the annual frenzy we call Septoctember...! I cut a tag die out of contact paper to create a reverse mask for my little scene. The snow mounds were masked with torn paper. All the inks in my scene are Distress Oxide inks - I love how they blend and how they react and lift with water. The trees were inked and misted with water before stamping.

IO Products:

DIE874-Y Stitch Tag #2

CL1161 Trees in Winter clear stamp set

CS1162 Glad Tidings clear stamp set

If you're catching my post Monday evening, you still have a few more hours to get your order in at IO with a 25% discount! These sales don't happen often, so if you still have items on your wish list you can squeeze a few more in this way!

Be sure to check out the other designers' blogs for more inspiration from our November releases - see the I.O. blog for all the details!

When you shop through the affiliate links used here, the company sends a small commission my way at no cost to you as thanks for the referral.
It's a lovely way to partner with these companies that mean so much to our creative community. Everybody wins!

Impression Obsession - more September products

We've got more projects to share from Impression Obsession's newest release! Again, I'm so excited to be able to share these new IO products with you! 
This is another stencil that I designed for IO - the full design has 3 rows of these trees but I blocked off just one for my design here. I used masking tape to isolate the trees, covering up the little star tips with little bits of washi tape. The trees are inked with Distress Oxide inks, then splattered with some dilute gold pigment ink. When that dried I removed the tape and used sharp colored pencils to color the stars and tree pots. 

I made sure my trees would match the striped paper from the new paper pad - this is basically a swatch sheet of the colors in the collection! I had this metal eyelet bar in my stash from 100 years ago, and it was a perfect fit there, so I pulled out the old tools and added it on. 

One more project using the paper pad - I made these earrings using the snowflake paper in the collection! The glass pieces are 12mm across, and these snowflakes were a perfect fit. Another idea for upcoming craft shows! I have a tutorial on SCS here.

IO Products:

STEN007-A1 Christmas Tree Stars stencil

PP008 Winter Fun paper pack

September 15th & 16th the Impression Obsession Team will be sharing  projects with NEW September Release stamps, dies, stencils and paper packs! You can find a list of participants on the Impression Obsession Blog each day. We will be giving away THREE Impression Obsession Gift Certificates for the event, so the more you comment through our Release Celebration the more chances you'll have to win!  Comments for each of the event days will be open until Tuesday September 20th at 8pm CT, and our winners will be announced on Wednesday September 21st on the Impression Obsession Blog.

Here is the link list for the rest of the projects - lots to see! Enjoy, and have a great day!

IO Stamps Blog

Angela Bode

Anna Wight

Dina Kowal <<<<<< you're here!

Giovana Smith

Jeanne Streiff

Laura Fulcher

Laura Williams

When you shop through the affiliate links used here, the company sends a small commission my way at no cost to you as thanks for the referral.
It's a lovely way to partner with these companies that mean so much to our creative community. Everybody wins!

Impression Obsession - Dies

There are so many amazing dies at Impression Obsession - this special feature lets them have the spotlight. We hope you're inspired! 

I'm playing today with a couple of sets that came out last month - I just got my mushroom set last week, so I took it for a spin. I usually cut die sets out all at once from watercolor paper and color the elements - it's a time saver for me! For the mushroom I used my new Tooli-Art paint markers - I love the even, opaque coverage and quick dry time. Looking forward to using these more! The snail was fussy cut, colored with Copics and then dotted with another Tooli-Art marker. I used the slimline rectangle dies, cutting 2 together to create a frame and inside panel, then brushed a background with Oxide inks.

IO Products:

CS828 Happy Trails clear stamp set

DIE1191-ZZ Stitched Slimline Layers die set

DIE1192-Z Stitched Slimline Layers 2 die set

DIE038-J Grass die set

DIE1201-Y Large Mushroom die set

Be sure to check out the other designers' blogs for inspiration - see the I.O. blog for all the details!

When you shop through the affiliate links used here, the company sends a small commission my way at no cost to you as thanks for the referral.
It's a lovely way to partner with these companies that mean so much to our creative community. Everybody wins!

Splitcoast Tutorial: Colored Glass

This week's tutorial over on Splitcoast is a throwback technique called Colored Glass - the tutorial actually ran first in 2012 during the Holiday Blitz event, but sometimes those tutorials get missed and it's nice to see them again and use the technique for a non-holiday project.

I was searching everywhere yesterday for a pack of Tim Holtz charms I still have not found, but I found a box of mini salt shakers that I bought years ago. The jar part of the shaker is about a 1" cube - they are soooo teeny and cute! I think at the time I was making salt shaker snowmen or something like that...? Anyway, in my current upcycle phase, I was thinking they'd make adorable pendants! 

The tutorial uses ModPodge and dye ink and I wanted that to work but it was humid and the ModPodge started to gap in patches, so I ended up starting over with alcohol ink instead. Tip - heating the glass will stop the ink from flowing and allow you to get some texture in the ink! I ended up with alcohol ink in just the upper portion of the bottle, which I like. I filled the bottle up with sand and tiny shells.

I threaded some 20g wire through the holes of the shaker and bent them across the top of the cap, then created a bail by bending one wire up to create a loop and wrapping both ends around. 

I glued the top to the jar with E6000 glue.

The little beaded dangle was created with a looped strand of waxed thread - you string a seed beed onto the left side, a small jump ring around both strands, then a seed bead on the right side and a small jump ring around both strands, and repeat until you have the length you want. Cute and easy! The sand dollar charm is from Joann's - always check their sales!

Speaking of upcycling - I made (and sold!!) this necklace this weekend - I'm having so much fun with this mixed media style!

 

When you shop through the affiliate links used here, the company sends a small commission my way at no cost to you as thanks for the referral.
It's a lovely way to partner with these companies that mean so much to our creative community. Everybody wins!

Impression Obsession - Discontinued Dies

There are so many amazing dies at Impression Obsession - this special feature lets them have the spotlight. We hope you're inspired! The team is especially featuring dies that are in our clearance section - you'll see that they are marked down 50% there already!

I thought a jewelry project would be fun! I hope you like it - I'll apologize now for not taking process photos - we are having an electrical issue in the room where I create (none of the outlets work) so I had to move to another room. I'll try to explain the process, and when things get repaired I'll do a video.

Here is the die set I used - there are coordinating stamps, but I made these pieces without them - the shapes stand alone well enough, and I didn't need the stamped detail. You can still grab this die/stamp set of 4 dies for half price! 

I needed 4 cuts of each key, so it was nice to have them all on one base for easy cutting. I cut the pieces from heavy (140#) watercolor paper, and glued them together to create a sturdy stack. I painted each key with a coat of metallic brown/bronze acrylic paint. Next I added a couple of coats of Ultra Thick Embossing Powder, and then sprinkled other powders little by little until I had a vintage patina that I liked. I used a Verdigris powder, black, pearl, and gold. 

I had made these house beads from polymer clay - I'm not even sure I was done with them, but since the project has a primitive feel, I like how this looks. I created a wrapped loop with 18g copper wire and hammered it for strength, then attached the keys at varying heights using bits of chain and jump rings. The turquoise bead is another handmade one.

The keys are quite stiff and sturdy, and very lightweight! I might just wear this tonight! Be sure to check out the other designers' blogs for inspiration - see the I.O. blog for all the details!

In other creative news - I scored this antique Hamilton drafting table on a local auction site for $10! It's 70-80 years old, and it's enormous. Needs a little care, but I think it will be a fun project. 

This is a busy week with graduation and all the activities that surround it - one day at a time! Cheers!

When you shop through the affiliate links used here, the company sends a small commission my way at no cost to you as thanks for the referral.
It's a lovely way to partner with these companies that mean so much to our creative community. Everybody wins!