Impression Obsession Die Cut Obsession - Holiday Theme

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 wanting to play with this older snow globe set - I made a tri-fold card (base is 12" x 6") and set the die inside the folds to cut the circle through the top 2 folds. 

The trifold allowed me to create a little scene in the central panel and then fold the right panel down to adhere over it, sealing all the layers in. My snowman is colored with Copic markers.

Here's the inside of the card - so fun! I love having the window inside the card as well.

IO Products:

DIE122-R Snow Globe

DIE899-Q Small Snowman

DIE884-U Lg. Snowman (scarf)

DIE347-W Mountain Landscape Layers

D13797 Wonderful Life

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!

Impression Obsession Holiday Card Hop Day 2

New and old, stamps and dies - it's another day for showing off what Impression Obsession has to offer for the holidays!  I hope you'll join the design team for a two day hop - and prizes!

I chose another older stamp for today because I think these collage images are so pretty! Easy to color or stamp over a mixed media background - one and done. I stamped in grey ink and then colored the ornaments with Copics and colored pencils.

The rest of the panel is watercolored, with splatters of gold all around. It's a very pretty shimmer! I wanted to add some gold leaf and a sentiment but it's fine as is for now - I can always add it later if I feel a bit extra!

IO Products

L13367 Ornament Collage

Each day (December 1st & 2nd) you can find a list of participants on the Impression Obsession Blog. We will be giving away THREE Impression Obsession $25 gift certificates for the event - so the more you comment through our Holiday Hop the more chances to win!

All comments for each of the event days will be open until Tuesday Dec. 7th at 8pm CT, and all of our winners will be announced on Dec. 8th on the Impression Obsession Blog.

Hop along - here's the list! Happy holidays!

IO Stamps Blog
Anna Wight
Dina Kowal <<<<<<< you're here!
Giovana Smith
Ilina Crouse
Jeanne Streiff
Kia Gibson Clapper
Laura Fulcher
Laura Williams
Lee Ann Barrett
Angela Bode

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!

Impression Obsession Holiday Card Hop Day 1

New and old, stamps and dies - we're showing off what Impression Obsession has to offer for the holidays!  I hope you'll join the design team for a two day hop - and prizes!

Some of my favorite stamps in my collection with IO are silhouettes, so I dug back to find an older one to share. This one is so fun to color, because of this glorious Christmas scene in the doorway. I started by watercoloring and then inking in and around the opening to create the shadows and textures I wanted. I used a couple of stencils, and the edge of a piece of paper... my favorite things about the scene are the ornaments on the tree (colored with Copics and then masked with a clear glaze pen) and the rays coming from the tree. So fun! Mediums used.... watercolor, hybrid and dye inks, colored pencils, and a white Posca paint pen.

IO Products:

G13229 Christmas Morning

Can't you just feel the Christmas morning tingles? Here are a few more holiday silhouette designs of mine!

Each day (December 1st & 2nd) you can find a list of participants on the Impression Obsession Blog. We will be giving away THREE Impression Obsession $25 gift certificates for the event - so the more you comment through our Holiday Hop the more chances to win!

All comments for each of the event days will be open until Tuesday Dec. 7th at 8pm CT, and all of our winners will be announced on Dec. 8th on the Impression Obsession Blog.

Hop along - here's the list! Happy holidays!

IO Stamps Blog

Anna Wight

Dina Kowal <<<<<< that's me!

Giovana Smith

Ilina Crouse

Jeanne Streiff

Kia Gibson Clapper

Laura Fulcher

Laura Williams

Lee Ann Barrett

Angela Bode

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: Sky View Scene

It's my turn to share a tutorial over on Splitcoast, and I've got a new and improved Sky View Scene tutorial! You might remember my Sun and Moonscapes video - this takes the scene a step further with a ring of trees - just like you're walking through the woods and taking a look up in the sky. Mmm, that sounds delightful!

You can click over to the tutorial page to view my process. Here are links to the stencils I used - be sure to use code DinaFan10 for a 10% discount any time you order from A Colorful Life Designs!

Cloud Edger

Marvelous Mask Circles

I made a bonus card using warm colors for a sunny scene, and featured a large butterfly in flight with one of my sentiment stamps. 

The butterfly is a mask, so I traced the edges with a black liner pen, colored in the solid areas with a black Copic marker, inked the open areas, then added more details with colored pencils and a paint pen.

Butterfly Mask

Big Rays stencil

C13037 Impulse 2 (IO quote stamp)

Lots of options for beautiful skyward scenes! Hope you have fun with this one.

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!

Sale time!

It's that time of year - just wanted to let you know that everything in my online store is at LEAST 15% off - some sections are marked down even more! Many items are made or printed to order and make wonderful gifts. If you have an idea for a customized gift, please ask! Shipping starts to get a little scary this time of year, so please shop early!

You'll also want to start making your list for the annual Impression Obsession sale - it begins first thing Wednesday morning! The entire site will be 25% off and a free gift will be included with each order. If you've been inspired by my stamp artwork or the cards you see here on my blog, I'd love for you to shop through my affiliate link! Don't forget to enter the discount code when you check out.

Have fun!

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 with a little hop to share our favorite cards from this month's release, so here's mine! If you're already hopping and you came from the Impression Obsession Blog you are in the correct place. If not, head there for the start of the hop so you don't miss anything!

I've got a couple of random stamps in my release this month... I have a small collection of large vintage kimono stamps, and I wanted to have at least one in my line - this outline is from a public domain drawing from 1677, and I filled it in with some of my own line art. Coloring was done with Copics, and I added some highlights with gold acrylic paint.

The background marbling stamp is one you may recognize from one of my clear sets, now discontinued. Instead of a layered set, it's back now slightly larger and in cling rubber. I will get a video done soon, but here you can see some samples of different effects done with the stamp - you can stamp it directly, stamp onto a misted panel, or mist the inked stamp before stamping. You can even layer more than one effect to get that classic depth that's characteristic of marble.  Fun, huh?

IO Products:

F22041 Hibiscus Kimono

F22040 Marble Texture

B22034 Rest Well

D13021 Passport Collage

IO will be giving away THREE Impression Obsession Grab Bags this week! Each comment you leave along the hop will give you a chance to win. Comments will be open until Monday Nov.22 at midnight CT. All winners will be announced on Tuesday Nov. 23 on the Impression Obsession Blog. Here's the hop list - go forth!

IO Stamps Blog

Dina Kowal

Giovana Smith

Ilina Crouse

Jeanne Streiff

Kia Gibson Clapper

Laura Fulcher

Laura Williams

Lee Ann Barrett

Angela Bode

Anna Wight

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!

Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop - Super Sponsor!

It's time for the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop, and I'm honored to be a Super Sponsor again! Keep reading to find out how you can win a coffee-themed charm bracelets or one of two $10 gift certificates to my online store, and receive a special coupon code for 20% off your order!

In case you're new to my blog, I'll tell you a little about me...  I'm a working artist (see my commissioned pet portraits HERE), have my own line of stamps , and I'm the Artist in Residence at Splitcoaststampers, among other roles behind the scenes. I love to create, and I love sharing what I learn in the process. I have an online store where you'll find prints of my original artwork as well as notecards, handmade beads and jewelry and other items. I've been blogging here for 15 years!

We're just wrapping up a holiday event at Splitcoaststampers today, and one of today's challenges was to have a window on or in your card... I wanted to combine one of the challenges with my coffee card, so I searched through Evernote for images that had coffee and a window together - and that's why I used this fox stamp today! This image is part of a series from Katzelkraft, and they're all delightful. I got this one from Topflight Stamps. The sentiment is from AJVD - possibly retired. Dies: IO Slimline Sentiments Flag and Spellbinders Essential Label Etched Dies

Be sure to check out the Coffee Lovers Blog for instructions on how to participate for prizes - this is the bracelet that's up for grabs! I love these sweet charms, and that coffee bean bead is one of my handmade exclusives! 

Two more winners will win a $10 gift code to my online store, and you can use the code below for 20% off your $20+ order for the whole next week - now is a great time for shopping! Clicking the graphic below will automatically apply the coupon to your cart.

Thank you for visiting me today - enjoy the hop!

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 DT Theme: Winter

The Impression Obsession team has some projects to share today featuring a winter theme. I made this card for a challenge over on Splitcoast, and I love how it turned out!

The cardinal and branch are watercolored using QoR paints as usual. I wanted a really saturated sky, so I used Karin markers to create some downward strokes from the top of the image, then blended them out with a wet brush toward the bottom of the panel. 

When everything was dry, I used a treeline stencil from A Colorful Life Designs to add a moonlit forest down below the bird. Instead of an inkpad, I scribbled some of the same marker ink onto an acrylic block, then used a brush to pick up the ink for stenciling. I love the depth that created on the card!

To highlight and protect the snowy areas, I used a clear glaze pen - they are waterproof when dry!

IO Products:

E1932-DG Cardinal on Branch (digi)

E1932 Cardinal on Branch (rubber)

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

If you're looking for a sale, be sure to check out the featured stamps page where a curated collection of themed stamps are 25% off! Take a tiptoe through the clearance pages while you're there too!

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!