Hello everyone and Happy Monday! It’s Nina-Marie here with you today for a brand new Studio Monday post featuring stamps from Art Impressions!

I love cute and whimsical images, and the Duck Stackers stamp set from Art Impressions is a new favorite of mine. I’ve never used Art Impressions stamps prior to this video, but I know I need to get more after using them here! They are very high quality rubber cling stamps that stamp beautifully. Art Impressions also has a lot of fun people stamps too, for those that prefer those over critters.

I have paired the Duck Stackers set with the Simon Says Stamp Wild Beauty and Cuddly Critters Accessories stamp sets to create a super adorable birthday card… with the fun party elements from Cuddly Critters Accessories, these little duckies are ready to PARTY!!!

For my coloring I used Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolors; for most everything I only used one color shade and just altered the pigment to water ratio to create lighter and darker shades. The color tubes I used were Cadmium Yellow, Yellow Orche, Cadmium Orange Hue, Alizarin Crimson, Indian Red, Sap Green, Hooker’s Green Light and Turquoise.

And because I love putting my critters in a scene, I did exactly that in this card! However, I wanted to make sure the duck stack stayed the center focus of my design, so I kept the background very loose and “impressionistic” by ink smooshing heavily watered-down distress inks (Peacock Feathers and Twisted Citron) onto my background panel and blotting the most intense areas up with a dry cloth. I then added some grass blade details using my Cotman watercolors.

To see how I created this card from start to finish, be sure to check out the video below! And if you enjoy, please give it a big “thumbs up” and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more weekly techniques and inspiration!

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Hey everyone! Happy Weekend! Welcome back to the latest edition of Weekender with Wanda! So glad to see you here today! I love having a set time to share with all of you each week. It’s my pleasure! Last week’s Weekender post was very personal and I thank you for all the super nice comments. Last week we talked Tim Holtz and Distress…. And this week we are going in a totally different direction! I used my Copics and some happy striped paper to feature stamps from one of my favorite stamp companies – Mama Elephant. Their stamps are so cheerful and cute and just plain fun. I combined two stamp sets together to create a little scene that looks just like the desk in my studio.

I used the Blogging Buddies stamp set and the Little Edibles stamp set together for my card. I thought the scale was really nice together…and who can resist those tiny food and coffee stamps! (Not me!) So, here’s the card photo, and then we can talk a little more about how I made it.  This is a great clean and simple card layout that you can use with any images or theme.

I started with a pre-cut Simon Says Stamp A2 Card Base and then covered the front with a fab stripe from the new Echo Park paper collection called Happy Summer. I used the Mama Elephant Landscape die to cut a gentle curve from some crisp white paper. I used the tiny envelope that comes in the Blogging Buddies stamp set, and randomly stamped all over the white layer. Then I added my sentiment in crisp black ink. Then,I layered that piece onto the stripes with foam tape.

Next I stamped all my images with SSS Intense Black Ink and die cut them out with the matching dies. The Little Edibles stamps had to be hand cut, but it was easy! I used my Copic Markers to color everything in hues to match the stripes in the paper.

How cute are those tiny cards?? LOVE. I used a sheet of red floral paper from the same Echo Park Happy Summer paper to frame my white circle – and made that my focal point. I attached all the images with foam squares onto the circle.

At the last minute I thought about adding glitter or Stickles…. But I decided to use some little red hearts instead. It just added that little extra bit of color to the card.

“You’ve Got Mail!” Who doesn’t like to get happy mail? No one I know! I hope that this little piece of mail has put a smile on your face today. Happy crafting – until we meet again next weekend!

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Hi readers! Happy Saturday! I just adore this card special guest Yana Smakula made from the too cool for school Cuddly Critters dog complemented with a party hat from the Cuddly Critters Accessories, and the Donut? Well it looks good enough to eat, especially with the cool bonus “drizzle” of puff embossing powder! Be sure to watch the video too, and enjoy! *Ahem* Pass the donuts, won’t you? ;)

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