Impression Obsession Designers' Challenge!

The Impression Designer Obsession designers' challenge today was to use no patterned paper in our creations. One of my favourite ways to create special cards is to use stitching and beading, so I decided to use that to highlight some of the wonderful IO sentiment stamps. This card uses one of the sentiment stamps from the "Anytime Sentiments" set. After stitching the corner flourish with metallic variegated thread, I stamped it with Versamark, then thermal embossed with Ranger Seafoam White embossing powder, and added a border peel-off and several pink crystals from Kaisercraft.The current Craft Challenge over at Charisma Cardz is "Diamonds are a girl's best friend," so I've used crystal;s on several of these cards to meet that challenge. The "Theme Thursday" challenge is "beautiful," and I suppose that's open to subjective interpretation. I really enjoy using beautiful metallic threads when I stitch and bead, so I hope these cards meet that criteria! ;) The current "Created by Hand" challenge is an open theme...so I'm meeting that one too.

This card uses one of the "Birthday Wishes" stamps. There are eleven stamps in this clear acrylic set...what a great value! After stitching and beading the netted design on the right side, I added a gold foil peel-off around the oval border, then decoupaged a 3-d pansy in the centre. Then I stamped the sentiment in the lower left corner with Versamark, and thermal embossed it wth Top Boss Black embossing powder.

The next card uses a tiny Happy Birthday stamp on the bottom right corner from the same set, along with more stitching and some Kaisercraft flat backed pearls. I also used some butterfly stamps (from Crafty Individuals), thermal embossed on vellum and pop-dotted. Over at the Flourishes blog, the Timeless Tuesday challenge is to get inspired by a Kim Polson poster. I used this one as the inspiration for this card.

This next card is for a very special person who's about to celebrate a wonderful event in her life. My sister Katherine retired from a decades long career in teaching three years ago, returned to university, graduated last month with a degree in divinity studies from McGill University in Montreal, and will be ordained as a Presbyterian minister this summer, starting her new career in her sixtieth year! We think she ROCKS! (lol) The stamp I used here is from the Impression Obsession Birthday Greetings set. The white pearl beads are hand stitched onto the card, the crystals are flat-backed, and glued on.

This last card has no stitching, but I needed a new home card for some friends, so I used one of my very favourite Gary Robertson stamps from Impression Obsession. This one is called "Window Box." For colouring, I used Prismacolour Premier Pencils, Tombow watercolours and some of the new Clearsnap Smooch paints. The top piece is punched with one of Stampin' Up's border punches. I added flowersoft and crystals to some of the flowers for a little more dimension. Impression Obsession has FABULOUS new stamps from Gary Robertson...such FUN to use! There are several beautifully detailed window and door stamps, the seasonal bird houses are a MUST-see, and the outhouses...well...I just LOVE them!

I hope you'll take the time to see the beautiful work posted by the other Impression Obsession designers today. You can find direct links to their blogs on my sidebar, to your right. Thanks so much for stopping by today!
Hope your weekend is delightful!