Falliday Fest tutorial: Copic Bleed Technique

Today's tutorial over at Splitcoast is a fun coloring technique from Kathy Racoosin called the Copic Bleed Technique. This is a two-for-one background technique using alcohol markers and a coloring page. As you color on the thin paper, it bleeds through to a sheet of cardstock, so you end up with this...

...and this! I picked up a small coloring book that had a lot of full-page designs and the kind of thin pages that work well for this technique. The sentiment I used is from my Snow Flourish clear set.

Come over to the Falliday Fest Challenge Forum for all the details!

Impression Obsession DT Challenge: Fall Birthdays

The Impression Obsession team's challenge today is to create a project with a fall birthday theme. I immediately thought of this Party Table image - it's an older one, but it looks perfect for a Halloween birthday party!

I colored the image in with Copic and Touch markers.

Be sure to check out these other designers' blogs for inspiration -

Anna @ Sassy & Sweet Notes
Daniela @ For the First Time
Dina @ Mama Dini's Stamperia ---- you're here
Jeanne @ Inky Paws
Jenny @ One Krafty Kat
Karen @ Paper Lilies and Ink
Kittie @ Kittie Kraft
Laura @ Laura's Stamp Art Journal
Vicki @ Summerthyme Studio

Remember you can enter these challenges too, using your Impression Obsession stamps! See the I.O. blog for all the details - you might even win a $25 gift certificate!! We'd love to have you join us.

Impression Obsession DT Challenge: Trick or Treat

The Impression Obsession team's challenge today is to create a project with a Halloween theme.

I started off with this bouquet image:

and then used some smaller stamps to fill the bouquet with Halloween cheer - each image was masked off and then popped up with foam tape for more dimension.

I did my coloring with Touch and Copic markers, and added a few dots of Nuvo drops to try them out. :)

Stamps I used: Sunflower Bouquet, Trick or Treat, Spidee, Ben, Bart, Skully  

Be sure to check out these other designers' blogs for inspiration -

Anna @ Sassy & Sweet Notes
Daniela @ For the First Time
Dina @ Mama Dini's Stamperia ---- you're here
Jeanne @ Inky Paws
Jenny @ One Krafty Kat
Karen @ Paper Lilies and Ink
Kittie @ Kittie Kraft
Laura @ Laura's Stamp Art Journal
Vicki @ Summerthyme Studio

Remember you can enter these challenges too, using your Impression Obsession stamps! See the I.O. blog for all the details - you might even win a $25 gift certificate!! We'd love to have you join us.

IODT/Cardmaker Blog Hop

Today the Impression Obsession design team is joining up with the CardMaker team for a blog hop - thanks for stopping by! If you're a regular reader of my blog and just happened upon my section of the blog hop, you may want to head to either the IO blog or CardMaker blog. If you should happen to get lost or interrupted along the way, you can always go there for a complete list of links in the correct order. Impression Obsession will be hosting a giveaway of a $25 gift certificate, so be sure to catch the details on that too!

If you came to my blog from Daniela's blog you are doing just fine. 

My card is a quick and simple one - this large bloom was easy to color and packs a real punch! I laid in a base color on all the petals using Touch Twin Markers and then pulled out some shading from the flower center with a darker color.

Stamps I used: Abstract Zinnia, Making a Difference

From here you're going to be visiting Juliana Michaels over at 17turtles! Thanks for stopping by to see me! 

Impression Obsession DT Challenge: A Day at the Beach

The Impression Obsession team's challenge today is to create a project with a beach theme. This card was one of my board samples from last summer's release - I love lighthouses, and Gary's artistic style captures them perfectly.

I used Touch Twin Markers to loosely color the scene, and did some palette blending with a rubbing alcohol in a waterbrush for the sky and water. (I have a very old video showing that technique HERE - I should probably redo that one!)

The wheel embellishment is die cut from chipboard covered in aluminum foil tape, and attached to the card with a mini brad. The burlap ribbon is from The Stamp Simply Ribbon Store. :)

IO products I used: Lighthouse with Flowers, Mini Nautical die set

Be sure to check out these other designers' blogs for inspiration -

Anna @ Sassy & Sweet Notes
Daniela @ For the First Time
Dina @ Mama Dini's Stamperia ---- you're here
Jeanne @ Inky Paws
Jenny @ One Krafty Kat
Karen @ Paper Lilies and Ink
Kittie @ Kittie Kraft
Laura @ Laura's Stamp Art Journal
Vicki @ Summerthyme Studio

Remember you can enter these challenges too, using your Impression Obsession stamps! See the I.O. blog for all the details - you might even win a $25 gift certificate!! We'd love to have you join us.

Splitcoast Tutorial: Circle Spinner

This week's tutorial over at Splitcoast is a Circle Spinner card - it's a fun variation on the spinner cards we used to make with a single straight cut, and dies make all the difference! Here's my card... and I thought I'd show off a few of the new Impression Obsession stamps in my sample! These are from Lindsay Ostrom's line - she has such a fun style.

Instead of using a contrasting paper, I stamped the image twice and colored the images up the same with Copic and Touch markers - this let me position the spinner track over the image without losing any of the details.

You can see how the two images layer together - and the bat spins (or it's supposed to!) around the little track. I'm having some issues getting it all the way around - not sure what science I'm missing... but it's still fun.

Stamps I used: Mr. P. Umpkin, Bart, Going Batty 

Remember you still have time to comment on the IO designers' blogs for your chance to win a $25 gift certificate - we're giving away 4 of them! For all the details and links, check the IO Blog. All the new Fall/Winter stamps are available in the IO webstore now, and headed to a stamp store near you. (By the way, if you ever see my stamps in your LSS, will you send me a picture? I'd love to see! You can tag me on Instagram at dinakowalcreative !)

Mix-Ability Challenge: Stop Color Bullying

Not long ago, I saw an article that proclaimed this color (Pantone 448C) to be the ugliest color in the world. 

Now, I know they had their reasons, but........ that's just mean. So my challenge is to make this color feel the love by incorporating this brown (or the closest you have) into a mixed media project. 

I used an existing background, and added some layers of stamping in brown to one side using stamps from Impression Obsession - I have a stack of collage stamps that I never put away - you'll see a lot of the same images on many of my mixed media projects.

The sentiment is from Unity Stamps - I love that collection of bold fonts and brave words. The card base is a pretty close match to the color above - so apparently not everyone thinks it's ugly!

Join us!

Splitcoast Tutorial: Coloring Transparent Objects

Here are a couple of samples that I made for Jennie's tutorial on Coloring Transparent Objects! This was such a fun tutorial to follow - Jennie's such an experienced teacher so it was fun to add her to my collection of tutorial authors. :)

The tutorial features balloons, but I wanted to show that it could be used for other objects too... I just didn't have too many to choose from that had overlapping transparent objects! I found this image from Taylored Expressions - maybe tomorrow I'll play around with some masking to expand the gallery a little more.

I colored the image with Touch Twin Markers. The sentiment is from Unity Stamps, and the background panel was one of my test panels for the Stamped Masking tutorial we shared last week.

My second card features an image from A Day For Daisies - I love to peek over there for freebies now and then! I love her sweet and sentimental style. (And now with Evernote I can actually remember what digis I have!) Again, the sentiment here is from Unity Stamps.

Hope you'll give this one a try! xo