Impression Obsession - Old is New

With such a huge collection of wonderful stamps from so many artists, sometimes the older stamps in the Impression Obsession catalog find their way out of the spotlight. We don't want them to be forgotten, so we like to feature them regularly. We hope you're inspired!

D15113 Honey Bear
CL754 Layered Twist (50% off!)
CC231 Cover-a-Card Vintage Honeycomb

I dug back to the summer of 2017 for this card! This bear is by Carmen Medlin, and he's colored with Copic markers on my favorite Canva-Paper using a palette blending technique. 

I used paper scraps to make a Starburst background - check out my tutorial for that technique HERE - and that sentiment is a two-part deal from this set (remember those sale items - when they're gone they're gone!)

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

Spellbinders July Large Die Club Kit

I'm back with another club kit project! The July Large Die Kit from Spellbinders is a great all-purpose alphabet set - most of my larger alphabet sets are steel rule dies, so it's nice to have a set with individual dies. The letters are tall and narrow, giving lots of possibilities for longer words and options for longer cards! 

I had some fun with this slimline card - mine is 3.5" x 8.5", and that gave me lots of room to play with a set from my 'uninked' bin! This is the Little Painters set from Waffle Flower, and it's full of all kinds of art supplies and little critters to hold on to them. The brushes made a nice border along the length of my card.

When the panel was stamped, colored, and inked, I lined up the letters I needed along the edge of a sticky note. Since I needed the 'E' twice, I placed it in order so I had the spacing right, then moved it to the end for my first cut. 

The edge of the sticky note is easy to position on the card - I used my grid mat to help too.

Once the other letters were cut, I could position the second 'E' and run the panel back through my cutter.

I removed the cut letters and replaced them with slightly thicker chipboard cuts, then layered the pieces cut from the panel back into place. The result is an "eclipse" effect, where the letters are replaced but have a little shadow and lift underneath them.

The sentiment I used is from another favorite set - it's Crafty Comments from Inky Antics.

...and here are the club details, if you're not a member yet! My favorite perks are the extra sales and the 10% discount on the Spellbinders site (even on sale items!)!

Spellbinders Monthly Club benefits: 

 Past Club Kits at Member Rates

 10% Store Savings

 Members Only Offers and Deals

 Earn Creative Rewards for Each Purchase

 Monthly Inspiration

 Cancel Anytime

 Skip Any Month

 Annual Membership Gift

 Exclusive Deals 

Spellbinders July Glimmer Club Kit

This month's Glimmer Club kit from Spellbinders features a beautiful set of floral scrolled framing plates! Here's my project:

I hadn't used last month's Small Die kit yet, so I paired both sets together, using a navy background to set the die cuts off. I foiled all 3 of the frame plates together, centering them to each other so there was an even border to die cut in between. This set coordinates perfectly with the Essential Label Etched Dies, so I used one of those dies to cut between the larger two frames. 

The largest frame is popped up on a foam sheet, and the inner frames are adhered to the card base - sort of a shadow frame for the focal images to shine. That sentiment is from this little Glimmer set which is a great little multipurpose one for quick foiled everyday words. It was the first set I ever foiled!

I colored the hand and flowers with Copic markers, and they're cut from watercolor paper - it's not everyone's favorite for markers because it's 'thirsty'... but that's why I like it!

Here's the full set of plates:

...and here are the club details, if you're not a member yet! And just so you know - if you're not Glimmer Club member now, you will want to be in AUGUST! My favorite perks are the extra sales and the 10% discount on the Spellbinders site (even on sale items!)!

Spellbinders Monthly Club benefits: 

 Past Club Kits at Member Rates

 10% Store Savings

 Members Only Offers and Deals

 Earn Creative Rewards for Each Purchase

 Monthly Inspiration

 Cancel Anytime

 Skip Any Month

 Annual Membership Gift

 Exclusive Deals 

Splitcoast Tutorial: Double Panel Gate Card

This week's tutorial over on Splitcoast is a fun and easy twist on the classic gate fold card - this Double Panel Gate Card has additional front panels that cross over the central opening. Fun and easy!

I've been on a vintage stamp collecting kick lately (mainly quirky Portfolio people stamps, but a few others that I love as well on ebay) - the stamp on the top panel here is from The Stamp Clinic, but I recognized the image as one that has been on my wish list on Etsy for a long time. The company name is different, so I wrote to the Etsy seller and told her I had found this one and wondered if it was a treasure. Turns out she owned The Stamp Clinic in the 90s and has rebranded the whole line, which is still intact! Hope you'll go and visit York's Little Art Studio and see what she has over there - this line of "Little Ladies" stamps is absolutely adorable, and a few more of them will be coming to live with me soon!

The stamps on the bottom panel are from my Happy Mail clear set, which has lots of stamps for small business owners but has plenty of other uses as well. I colored both panels with Karin Markers, using a few different techniques. So fun!

This was a fun one, especially having the two panels to decorate on the front!

This week I have had a lot of fun playing with a new-to-me medium - polymer clay! Here's my mess in the basement - I have lots to learn and endless ideas.

Have a great week!

Impression Obsession - Die Cut Obsession

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

I've been looking back through my files to find older die cut projects that never made it to the blog - how did I miss sharing this one?! These dies were released last summer, and this was one of my catalog samples. This is a Pop-Up Box Card - they're very simple to make and perfect for die sets with lots of smaller elements, like this Fish set:

DIE822 Fish

I used the Wave Edge dies to line each little inner section, and the Sunny Face and Stitched Clouds to back the card base. The tiny fish are popped up on narrow strips of acetate.

With all that inside, this card can still fold flat for mailing! That sentiment is here - such a cute one with this Fish die set or the whale stamp Nola drew to go with it.

Be sure to check out the other designers' blogs for die cutting inspiration - see the I.O. blog for all the details! Have a great week!