Hello creative friends! It’s been a while since I’ve had the energy and motivation to be creative. I happened to see this Inspiration Challenge, and it was just what I needed to let myself reengage with the hobby that I love. Here is the link to this challenge on the Altenew Blog if you’d like to participate as well! And I hope you do!
First of all… come on! Who could resist a plate of delicious macarons and cappucino? Add in that beautiful teal blue plate, and you have a fantastic and interesting color palette, sure to catch your eye! The inspiration for this card came from the challenge, as well as the first floral Press Plate that I purchased for my new Spellbinders BetterPress System – the Altenew Blossoming Bouquet Press Plate. Please let me apologize for the lighting in the photos… it’s winter, and I just can’t catch a good time with the sun out! Everything thing looks a little dark no matter how much artificial light I try!
I wanted to use something different to ink the press plate. I didn’t think black would be the best for this design. I used a Lisa Horton Crafts Metallic Pigment Ink Cloud 9 ink pad in Solid Gold. I’m sure the Enchanted Gold or Antique Gold Pigment ink pads from Altenew would work just as well if you have them.
I placed the Altenew Blossoming Bouquet Press Plate on my BetterPress base, and inked it up with the gold pigment ink. Then I taped a piece of watercolor paper to the clear top plate, and ran it through my die cut machine. I left the watercolor panel taped in place while I colored the flowers and leaves.
I used Dew Drops and then Teal Cove to watercolor the flowers. The method I used was to press the mini ink cube onto my craft mat to squeeze out some ink, pick up the ink with a waterbrush, and then paint the flowers. The center of the flowers were colored with Peachy Glow. For the leaves, I used Grass Green and Firefly. After I finished coloring the flowers and leaves, I reinked the press plate, still in place in my BetterPress base, placed the cover plate on top (with the watercolor paper still taped in place) and ran it through my die cut machine again. This restamped the gold ink, making the outline crisp and clean again after the watercoloring.
Next I fussy cut the image. I noticed the flowers and leaves made an oval shape, so I cut an oval out of white to carry that theme, and give me a place to put the sentiments. I colored a piece of white cardstock with the Teal Cove ink to use for the Fancy Hugs Die, and chose a subsentiment from the Bad Days Happen Stamp set. To add some background texture and movement, I used the Dotted Waves Debossing Cover Die with a piece of colored cardstock, and layered than on a piece of cream textured cardstock from my stash. The light blue pearl embellishments were added for more dimension.
Thank you for stopping by my blog – I appreciate you! Give yourself permission to take care of yourself today and spend time doing what fills your heart! When your heart is full, there is more to give to others!
Altenew products used: Altenew Blossoming Bouquet Press Plate Altenew Dotted Waves Debossing Cover Die Altenew Bad Days Happen Stamp set (sentiment) Altenew Fancy Hugs Die Altenew Fresh Dye Ink – Dew Drops, Teal Cove, Peachy Glow, Firefly, Grass Field
Also used: Lisa Horton Crafts Metallic Pigment Ink Cloud 9 Solid Gold
Hello creative friends! I am so excited to share that I recently completed the 5 required courses and projects for the Altenew Academy Educator’s Level 3 program, and qualified to host a virtual (or in-person) 2 hour workshop! Completing the necessary courses up through Level 3 definitely took a bit longer than I had planned (more on that later), but I also learned so much more than I expected. Plus, my actual cardmaking skills improved. More on that later too.
First, I’d like to share about my workshop. Hopefully, I’ll inspire someone else to step outside of their comfort zone, and share part of themselves with other lovely people who enjoy the same things. For anyone who knows me, or someone like me, it’s no surprise I was stressed and anxious leading up to my class. A touch of adrenaline helps me focus and pay attention to details, and think things through. So that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I had to develop a new temporary mantra called “It’s going to be fun!”.
I started to prepare for the workshop by creating an idea for a card. Let’s start with the inspiration for these cards… a vintage doily that I believe Great Aunt Ruby (1887-1986) would have made. That was my Grandmother’s father’s sister. I guess doilies are out of fashion, and not my style anymore, but I do treasure this keepsake that reminds me of my Grandmother, and visits with Aunt Ruby. I used three of the colors to select my inks. I chose to use the Altenew Crisp Dye Ink mini cube sets in Summer Afternoon (yellow and tans), Sugarplums (purples), and Tropical Forest (greens). I also like the way the pansies on the doily are made to ruffle, so I wanted to do something a little similar on my cards. I chose to do some paper sculpting with an optional paper sculpting kit. Optional, because fingers work just as well!
I know with our crazy economy, it’s not all about just using the newest products, but I really HAD to have the Gardenia Layering Die Set! The flowers were so lovely, I could almost smell them! So I thought – ok, I’m gonna splurge… maybe one of the themes to my workshop could be stretching your supplies, using the same supply in different ways, using a product in a potentially new way. And I didn’t want my attendees to feel like they had to buy a lot of product to come to my workshop. Along with that, I purposefully only used white paper, and inks to color it. I said that any Altenew layering die set would work, and any stencils.
I was worried about planning too much, or too little, for the 2 hour time slot. I ended up creating two cards to make, and then had a demonstration at the end, just in case I had extra time, and also to make it more fun – something unexpected! I finished the demo background into a card with leftover bits from my workshop.
I had 7 lovely ladies sign up for my workshop, plus Erum, our fearless leader! Unfortunately I missed a communication, and one lady did not get the Zoom link. I felt awful. This was a learning experience for me. From now on everyone gets my cell phone number! I hope she forgives me!
To begin with, we started the card with the texture paste background so that it could dry. If you are using paste in your own workshop, or anything that needs drying time, remember to do it first. This was create by pouncing 3 or 4 different color minicubes on top of the stencil in strips (top to bottom in this photo). Inks were added from darkest ink to lightest ink on top of the Leaf Drops stencil. Then we taped a piece of cardstock underneath the stencil and applied Altenew Texture Paste (using a palette knife) on top of the stencil in the same direction as your strips of ink, in one pass.
The texture paste picks up the ink that’s lying on top of the stencil, and drags it, coloring the paste in some spots but also letting the white show, in a variegated fashion.
While that was drying (mine never did!) we went on to the other card. This card is pretty straightforward, and anyone could probably copy the look pretty easily. What I would like to point out is that for the flower, we colored a piece of watercolor paper ON BOTH SIDES with the same color. We used this to cut out one of the flowers from our Gardenia Layering Die Set (or whichever set they were using). To color the paper, we ink smooshed onto a craft mat, added water, and dragged the paper through it to cover. Nothing fancy, just coloring paper with ink. We used a different “technique” to color the paper we would cut the leaves out of… we just randomly applied a few colors of green to a piece of white cardstock with a blending brush, and then die cut the leaves. More green can be added after diecutting, but it’s meant to be another quick and easy way to color paper, leaving some white and lighter sections for variation. Both the flower petals and the leaves were shaped using the Sizzix Tim Holtz Shaping Kit. I demonstrated that the same paper shaping effect can be created just by using your fingers to shape the petals.
I explained a few things I tried with the backrground that didn’t work out so well, and then how I blended Warm Sunshine ink through the Elegant Swirls Stencil. Using the same ink, I stamped tiny text from the Dynamic Duo: Dainty Roses Stamp Set multiple times over the stenciled background. Since the stencil was swirly, I followed that theme by curving my sentiments before stamping. This card was finished with a few Altenew Antique Gold sequins, and another sentiment from the same set, embossed in gold onto white cardstock.
An hour had passed, and it was time to move to the second card with the embossing paste. Mine still wasn’t dry! I live in Virginia, and in the summers, the humidity is usually as high as the temperature. 90 degrees? 90% humidity! Anticipating this, I had made another background with embossing paste the day before, that was dry. See that cute scalloped cut on the edge, behind the hugs sentiment? That was from a random rectangular die. I just used one side of it to cut the line where I wanted it. The rest of the card was very much the same to put together, except the leaves. For the leaves, I used a dark green Distress Oxide Ink on a piece of vellum, then layed another piece of vellum on top, making a vellum sandwich if you will. This keeps the ink from smearing around until it dries, which in Virginia, can take precisely forever and a day. I placed the leaf die cuts on top of the vellum, then cut them out as a sandwich. That keeps your cutting machine and dies clean too. Plus it gives more dimension when you add it to your card like that.
That didn’t take very long, so then I had extra time to talk about glitter. Glitter! How many of us have glitter? All of us! How many of us love to use it? or worse, get a card make with glitter?! So here’s my trick to use up some of it!
The holidays are coming. Time for lots of sparkle! All you need to do is get a container of transparent texture paste. Unfortunately Altenew doesn’t make one, but you can use it with all of their stencils of course. I took a little ultra fine glitter and mixed it into a glob of Ranger Transparent Matte Texture Paste, and spread a couple swipes through the Altenew Feathery Stencil. I then added a touch of Grape Agate ink to some more clear paste, and applied that to fill in more of the stencil. Look how gorgeous!
I was surpised at the color of the Grape Agate when it dried. I’m sure it was because it was so diluted by the paste. But in person it really is a gorgeous taupey color that highlights the glitter and blends with the flower. This extra card turned out to be my favorite of all!
Class Projects
Created By Ann T.Created by Ann T.
I love the coloring that Ann added on her card to her flower! Absolutely gorgeous! I new would have thought to use purple to lowlight the edges of the leaves. I don’t remember the name of the stencil she used, but I heard it was discountinued. I’m definitely going to look for it! It looks like she used a top fold card, and also cut away the front of the card, leaving the flower to overlap. Nice detail! For her second card, she kept with the straight theme of her stencil instead of curving the smaller text that she repeated.
Created by Helen B.Created by Helen B.
These two cards were created by Helen. She used the Altenew Flowing Drops Stencil, and the Craft-A-Flower Southern Magnolia Die Set. The geometric stencil gives me the feeling of a slate walkway! I love her choice of using blues for the flowers. These are beautiful birthday cards. I could also see using this color combination for a Thinking of You card… very peaceful and calm. She did a great job following along with my design!
Created by Leslie H.Created by Leslie H.Created by Leslie H.
Leslie knocked these out of the park! She went to town with her ink smooshing on the hugs card and got a lovely, layered texture on her flower petals. How did she do that with the Hugs Die? So Shiney! I guess I will have to join her Level 3 workshop (coming soon!) and find out! She also shared that she did some stamp surgery to get her sentiments to bend on the second card. Now there’s some “fearless” confidence! Special shoutout to Leslie, as she rallied the troops and helped let others know about my workshop!
Created by Pamela K.Created by Pamela K.Created by Pamela K.
Pam gets the award for the bravest crafter of my workshop. A fellow Rochesterian, she now lives in Florida and lost power due to Hurricane Debby. Nevertheless, she rejoined on her phone and finished the workshop! Her photos are a little dark, due to no power at the time! Bravo Pam! I love how she chose to use the same elements, but differently. Imagine putting the cards I designed and the cards she designed in a set together? Just a few changes like cutting down the embossed panel differently, and positioning things differently… totally fresh and different looks, in the same style! I think I’m CASEing hers for sure! Next time… seek shelter first, craft second!
Created by Saskia L.Created by Saskia L.
Take a look at these beauties, made by my new friend Saskia from the Netherlands! That Craft-A-Flower Open PeonyDie Set has been on my wishlist far too long… Hurry up Christmas!The coral pink flower is absoultely stunning. And I love the bigger flower with this card design than the one I used.I wish I could remember what colors she said she used. She used the Flowing Drops Stencil as well as an alternative to my Elegant Swirls, and it definitely gives a nice feeling of movement. Great job Saskia! Don’t you all think she should become an Educator too?
Created by Alysia J.Created by Alysia J.
Can you believe we had to convince Alysia (from Alaska!) that we all loved her stripy texture paste background? That’s exactly how I pictured it in my mind! Except I didn’t try it with a striped stencil like she did. I like how she was able to get the darker to lighter colors, and the orientation that she used. I really like the choice of the “Thinking of you” sentiments, all in different fonts! The bright pink flower makes a super cheerful card, and I really like the greens she picked – I’m thinking It’s the beautiful Frosted Foliage (with Silver Sage – my favorite) Fresh Dye ink minicube set.
My Reflections
I was rather anxious and nervous about my workshop. Would anyone be interested enough in my cards to show up? Would I be able to teach them something spectacular? Impart some unbelievable cardmaking wisdom upon them? Would I panic and not be able to speak? As I said earlier, “this is supposed to be fun” quieted most of the silly thoughts.
First of all, everyone I have met in this hobby/industry/whatever is always SO NICE and kind, and happy. I do this because it is a creative outlet, and I can use what I produce to put a smile on someone’s face, let someone know I see them and they matter, or send a virtual hug. If you are preparing to host a similar workshop, create content for YouTube, or post a card to a Facebook group or Instagram, know that Our Community is loving, supportive, and caring! Put aside your doubts!
Next I’d like you all to know that this took far longer than I imagined. At the time I started with the Level 1 classes, I thought surely I could be done in a few months. Then life got lifey. Since I was accepted into the program in October of 2022, I began working full time again from home, my son got married, and my husband was diagnosed with a rare syndrome which caused his bone marrow to stop producing adequately, on the way to failing. We are preparing for his bone marrow transplant as I write this, and we cannot wait for him to be healthy again. So lots of life events got in the way, but I kept chugging along, course after course, enjoying the process, enjoying the learning, and improving my skills.
My reflections on the class? The biggest one is my thanks and gratitude for the lovely ladies/new friends who not only signed up, but showed up, and gave of their time to help support me. Wow! Y’all Rock! And Erum – who reviewed and commented on every single card I made, as well as those of many others who are participating in this program. She gave extra, and is extra appreciated! Thank you Erum! Thanks and gratitude are also due to Altenew for their one-of-a-kind, exceptionally fantastic and diverse Academy of courses available to everyone!
I was also so excited to see everyone’s photos show up in my inbox. It was like opening a gift – seeing what each person did with my initial design! WHen I made my cards, there was only one way in my mind. Seeing the small changes, which often resulted in a “better” design in my mind, was a great learning experience for me.
My “if I have time” idea with the glitter turned out to be the favorite card that I created, and it was just one of those “what if I tried…” kinda things. So I am definitely going to make time to do more of that – just sitting down the next time one of those ideas pops in my head, or I get inspired by the patterns of the Olympic gymnast’s outfits! Talk about colors and sparkles!
Yes, I had a plan, and I had things to share and steps to follow, but it really turned into just a very nice 2 hours of chatting, sharing, getting to know one another, and doing what we love, together. After all folks, we were not designed to be solitary beings. We’re pack animals. We thrive with connection, and there is not a better group of people to connect to in the world, in my opinion!
Thank you for stopping by my blog – I appreciate you! Give yourself permission to take care of yourself today and spend time doing what fills your heart! When your heart is full, there is more to give to others!
Hello creative friends! Today I’m sharing a card that I made while participating in Altenew Academy’s Creative Coloring with Erum – Advanced Techniques online course, instructed by Erum Tasneem. I took this class as part of my Altenew Academy Level 3 certification.
The inspiration for this card was actually twofold – a combination of the stamp set (Statement Flowers), and the set of mini ink cubes (Fresh Dye Red Sunset, including Blush, Rouge, Crimson, and Velvet). I love this stamp because it certainly does make a statement! I like the view from the top of one flower, paired with the side view of the other. Instant dimension already! Even though there are only two flowers, the “rule of threes” is covered with the three groups of leaves. The stamp is a nicely composed focal point already, and takes up most of the space on a standard A2 card. There isn’t much to do except add a sentiment to make a lovely card. I also love this coordinated set of ink pads… from pink, to coral, to red, all complimenting each other. For the first flower, I mainly used the two lighter shades, which resulted in a more coral flower. On the second flower, I used the two darker shades, and that flower came out more pink-red. I think they give a nice sense of calm to this card.
In this class, Erum demonstrates a watercolor technique using a stencil that is a large flower with lots of open areas in the petals to color. I did not have a similar stencil, so I used this large Statement Flower stamp. I used Canson XL watercolor cardstock, stamped in VersaMark ink, and used gold embossing powder. I followed Erum’s watercoloring technique of covering the petal in a light shade, and then building up color, drying between layers. I also used her stippling effect in a few areas to build up more shading.
I thought this would be a fairly easy image to fussy cut, and I don’t think there are dies available for this set anyways. It turns out fussy cutting is not easy for me at all, no matter how simple it might seem in the beginning, so please don’t judge! Hopefully the recipient won’t either!
It actually took me quite some time to finish this card. I went back and forth about adding another color in the background, or more green, or maybe blue… I usually grab my scrap box, and just play around until something jumps out at me. This image was so calm and peaceful to me, as well as being on the elegant side, so I ended up choosing black and gold. Another idea was using a textured white background (with an embossing folder, or possibly a cover die), but I tend to make a lot of white cards. The gold swirly bits are a circle die that I cut in half and positioned more into an oval shape, to fill in more of the background.
Thank you for stopping by my blog – I appreciate you! Give yourself permission to take care of yourself today and spend time doing what fills your heart! When your heart is full, there is more to give to others!
Altenew products used: Altenew Statement Flowers Stamp Set Altenew Sentiment Strips 3 Stamp Set Altenew Crisp Dye Ink Cubes – Summer Afternoon, Green Fields Altenew Fresh Dye Ink Cubes – Red Sunset
Also used: Pinkfresh Studio Stand Alone Die Cuts – Spiral Circle, Diagonal Stitched Rectangles
Hello creative friends! Today I’m sharing a card that I made while participating in Altenew Academy’s Stunningly Simply Watercolor Techniques online course, instructed by Lydia Evans. I took this class as part of my Altenew Academy Level 3 certification. I’ll have to say that this course was one of my favorites so far. I felt like I learned more techniques that I wasn’t familiar with, and they all seemed to be at about my level of skill, which is to let the water/ink do all the work! I’m more of a crafter than an artist for sure, but after creating this card in particular, I sure feel like I created art rather than crafted a card. This might need to get framed and stay in my craft room, er… I mean, “studio”.
The inspiration for the focal point came straight from one of the lessons in the class. Lydia used a flower from a different set (Beautiful Day), and demonstrated the technique using Distress Picked Raspberry Ink and Distress Chipped Sapphire Ink. The two colors blended into a beautiful purple. I chose two of my favorite Distress colors, Saltwater Taffy and Seedless Preserves. I also used a different but simlar flower from the Golden Days Layering Stamp Set. I finished my card very differently than hers.
I don’t want to give away all of the secrets – you should really take the class yourself! Basically this is a no-line watercoloring technique, done on watercolor paper. I used Canson XL watercolor paper. After selecting an outline stamp with plenty of open areas to work in, you stamp in your lighter color ink. I dried it at this point with my Ranger heat tool. I “smooshed” some ink out of each ink pad onto a craft mat. Then I used a small paint brush and clean water to cover one petal with water, filling in the area I wanted to add color to. I picked up some Saltwater Taffy ink on my brush, and touched it to the water, letting the ink “drop” into the water. Before that dried, I picked up some Seedless Preserves ink with another small brush, and touched it just to the area of the petal that is closest to the center of the flower – where I thought there would be shading. That’s it! I let it air dry, which didn’t take too long. You have to do one petal at a time, and you can’t move on to an adjoining petal until the first one is completely dry. You can however work on another petal in a different area of the flower. After all of the petals were done, I stamped over the center of the flower with Distress Villainous Potion and Black Soot, using the flower center stamps in the Golden Days Set.
I found that it was better not to try to go back and touch up something you don’t quite like. You kinda get what you get. You’ll get the hang of it… maybe you need a little more ink, maybe less. But once all of the petals are done, you’ll just see your beautiful flower, and you won’t notice each petal.
I added leaves in a similar way, after making a mask for the flower to get a layered effect. To pick the color for the leaves, I used a color wheel. The Saltwater Taffy and Seedless Preserves are basically Split Complementary colors, so Forest Moss was on the other end of the triangle. I just used one color for the leaves, layering the ink in places to get darker areas. I made leaf masks so I could add some background. I used the Altenew Linear Stencil and a blending brush to add a bit of Tattered Rose Distress Ink and then spattered some bright gold mica spray on top. The “love” sentiment is from the Altenew Versatile Greetings Die Set. The sub-sentiment is from a metallic Tim Holtz Idea-ology sentiment sticker pack.
Thank you for stopping by my blog – I appreciate you! Give yourself permission to take care of yourself today and spend time doing what fills your heart! When your heart is full, there is more to give to others!
Altenew products used: Altenew Golden Days Layering Stamp Set Altenew Linear Stencil Set Altenew Versatile Greetings Die Set
Also used: Ranger Distress Ink – Saltwater Taffy, Seedless Preserves, Villainous Potion, Tattered Rose, Forest Moss, Black Soot
Hello creative friends! Today I’m sharing two cards that I made after participating in Altenew Academy’s Stencils Unleashed: Advanced Stencil Techniques online course, instructed by Nicole Watt. I took this class as part of my Altenew Academy Level 3 certification. Nicole is a fabulous instructor, and I sure do miss her weekly online live demonstrations! She did a fantastic job on this course – lots of extra information for each technique. I love her style, and enjoy how we can see her creating in real time, thinking outloud through her creative process, making real mistakes, and adding all sorts of tips and tricks along the way.
The inspiration for this card came from one of her cards. She started with a simple background, colored by blending ink through a geometric stencil. She then added a “silhouette” scene over the top, using black ink through several stencil masks. The focal poiint of the card was a vase with several floral elements, all dodne in black ink as a silhouette. She also did another card with a similar technique, but used a solid image colored with gold embossing powder, instead of black, to make a gold silhouette. Am I not explaining it clearly? You’ll just have to take the class to find out! You won’t regret it!
I used the Altenew Blooming Flower Bed Builder Stencil Set for this card. I wanted to have a few colorful flowers in a sea of black, silhouetted flowers. I colored a few of the flowers with a small sponge blending tool, using masking tape to cover up the pieces of the stencil that I would later color black. I played around a couple times before I decided on how much I wanted to color, and how much I wanted to remain black. After I got a few of the flowers colored, I colored in the rest of the flowers and leaves with black ink. That was a good start, but I wanted some texture. This year, Ranger and Tim Holtz came out with a black texture paste. You could also color your own white paste with some black reinker. It looks like a mess, and it is, but it cleans up with water, and added a little something extra. I only used the paste over some of the black flowers. Sometimes you need to get messy to make a “clean and simple” card!
To finish up the first card, I used a bit of Glossy Accents over a blue flower to highlight and focus on that flower. I stamped a sentiment from the Altenew Bad Days Happen Stamp Set. I felt like I wanted that one blue flower to really stand out, so I added some black die cut leaves (from a different brand) behind the sentiment, and a few black sequins.
After I finished that card, I had another thought to stamp and emboss the sentiment directly on the background. Starting with a frresh piece of cardstock, I stamped the sentiment then embossed in gold embossing powder. Then I used the same process as with the first card, just avoiding the sentiment area. I did add a few more black elements aroundd the stencil to make it fit into the design a little more. For this card, I used some antique gold Altenew sequins, and mounted the card front on a piece of gold cardstock. Both cards are A2 sized.
I went back and forth over which one of these cards I liked better, that I would use for this post. Seriously, I changed my mind 5 or 6 times, so I just decided to share them both. Honestly, the gold one felt too simple, but I know how long it took me to make! Which one do you like better?
Thank you for stopping by my blog – I appreciate you! Give yourself permission to take care of yourself today and spend time doing what fills your heart! Wen your heart is full, there is more to give to others!
Altenew products used: Altenew Blooming Flower Bed Builder Stencil Set Altenew Bad Days Happen Stamp Set Altenew Crisp Dye Ink – Warm Sunshine, Coral Bliss Altenew Fresh Dye Ink – Dew Drops
Also used: Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlits – Garden Greens Ranger Distress Texture Paste – Black Opaque Ranger Distress Oxide Ink – Black Soot
Hello creative friends! Today I’m sharing a card that I made after participating in Altenew Academy’s One Stamp Six Ways online course, instructed by Justine Hovey. I took this class as part of my Altenew Academy Level 3 certification. The idea of this course is to find different ways to imagine the same stamp (or die, focal point, etc) into six different, unique card designs. Justine demonstrated six different ideas using the same stamp, Vintage Garden from Altenew. It is a beautiful set! The main stamp is two different flowers and a couple leaves. I found a stamp set in my stash that was similar, the Paint-A-Flower: Camellia Waterhouse set.
The inspiration for this card came from one of Justine’s card designs, where she stamped white ink onto black paper, and black ink onto white paper, cut the paper in half, and pieced the design together. I liked the clean and simple look of her card, however I felt that I would want to color the flowers. I also thought it would be neat to cut the design with a curved line, more like a yin-yang design. I wanted to use some kind of medium that would be opaque on the black paper so the color would show on both the white and the black sides of the card. I decided to use Distress Mica Sprays, so I chose to start with black and white watercolor paper.
I had a harder time with the black watercolor paper than I expected. First off, whether I used VersaMark Ink with White Embossing powder, or used White Pigment Ink with Clear Embossing Powder, it seemed like the paper sucked up the ink too fast, and I couldn’t get a good layer of the embossing powder to stick. This definitely became a learning experience! You might notice the white outlines on the black paper are kind of splotchy. The Perfectionist in me spent a good hour trying many differnet combinations to get the best coverage. I’m still only marginally happy with this one. What worked the best for me in the end was to stamp with White Pigment Ink, and quickly add Clear Embossing Powder, and heat set. I used a stamp positioning tool so that I could do this TWICE, on top of each other. Then, I cleaned off my stamp, applied some anti-static powder to the black paper, stamped the image with VersaMark Ink, and then added White Embossing Powder. Phew! Maybe in hindsight I should have tried regular black cardstock so the embossing might turn out better, and then see if I could use the mica sprays to color in the flowers, without getting the paper too wet.
The white watercolor paper was easier for some reason – I stamped several times in VersaFine Onyx Black Ink, and then applied clear embossing powder and heat set it. I was happy with the result.
I used a die that was designed to cut rolling hills to cut each of the flower clusters in half with the same curved line. I made a little contraption to hold the die in place to cut both the white paper and then the black paper in the same exact place, so that they would fit together perfectly.
Starting with the white watercolor paper side, I colored the flower using the red Yuletide Distress Mica Spray and a paint brush. I spritzed some of the spray onto my craft sheet, and painted it on in a very rudimentary way, just layering it to get a darker shade in some areas. I was hoping it would look more similar when I painted on the black watercolor paper side, but the Mica Spray wasn’t opaque enough. I tried painting on some white pigment ink underneath the Mica Spray, but it didn’t seem to make very much of a difference. Maybe Distress white paint would have helped? I’ll try that next time. I painted the other flower using Hocus Pocus (purple) and Frozen Fog (very light purple-silver) Mica Sprays. For the leaves, I used Mowed Lawn Distress Oxide Spray on both the white and the black sides. After seeing how different the leaves looked, I decided I liked the little bit of the red overlap much better. There is a touch of purple flower on the white side. I probably should have planned it better so there would be more of both flowers on each side. Next time!
I used a small “you & me” sentiment, stamped directly onto the white side. I was looking for a “You Complete Me” sentiment, but I don’t have one. I thought that would be cute, especially with Valentine’s Day coming up.
Before I added the sequins, I thought the black watercolor paper wasn’t as black as I wanted it to be. It might have been residue from the anti-static powder. I used a bit of Black Soot Spray Stain with a small paint brush to go over the black paper. I think it darkened it up just a touch, and emphasized the contrast.
Thank you for stopping by my blog – I appreciate you! Give yourself permission to take care of yourself today and spend time doing what fills your heart!
Altenew products used: Altenew Painit-A-Flower: Camellia Waterhouse Outline Stamp Set
Also used: Ranger Distress Mica Sprays – Yuletide, Hocus Pocus, Frozen Fog Ranger Distress Spray Stain – Black Soot Ranger Distress Oxide Spray – Mowed Lawn
Hello creative friends! Today I’m sharing a card that I made after participating in Altenew Academy’s Elements of Floral Composition online course, instructed by Jaycee Gaspar. I took this class as part of my Altenew Academy Level 3 certification. This was an excellent course, and I learned a lot about the different aspects of composition in art. Jaycee is an excellent instructor, and I highly recommend following him on social media and taking some of his classes.
The inspiration for this card came from the beautiful coordinating set of stamps, dies and stencil that I treated myself to from Altenew before the holidays – Linear Life Poinsettias. I loved the modern design of the stamps. I thought the stencil, with it’s offset design, would surely stretch my comfort zone! Although I started with the Poinsettia set for this card, I had no idea what I was going to do as a design until I participated in this class with Jaycee.
I just love how this class is divided into lessons with each one focusing on a different element of composition: Color, Value, Line, Shape, Form, Texture, and Space. The real inspiration for this card came from Jaycee. I used his 60-30-10 Color “rule”, striving for about 60% gold, 30% red, and 10% green. To add color Value, I used two coordinating red shades of ink (Vineyard Berry and Pink Pearl from the Tea Party mini ink cube set), and then softly blended a gradient of ink through the stencil to get more Value differentiation. I used a triangle Shape to arrange my flowers, and I also used the grid of thirds that he explained, for both the flower placement and the sentiment placement. I used dimensional foam tape to add Form, and the String Panel Cover die to add a layer of Texture to the background. Texture was also added with clear embossing powder for the outline of the flowers and leaves.
I started by stamping the poinsettias in Vineyard Berry ink on 80 lb white cardstock, applying clear embossing powder, and then melting the powder with a heat gun. The ink didn’t stay wet as long as I wanted it to (it’s winter and the air in the house is very dry), so the embossing powder didn’t stick as much as I wanted it to. It still gave the look I wanted, so I decided it would be fine. I stamped the leaf outline in Eucalyptus, and embossed in clear powder as well. I then used the stencil to apply color to the flowers and leaves, using Pink Pearl and Silver Sage. These are lighter colors in the same mini ink cube sets. I used a small blending brush, and tried to get more ink at the center of the flowers as a component of Value.
After my flowers and leaves were colored, I cut them out using the coordinating dies. This is when I started playing around with the placement, using my “rule of thirds” grid, and keeping a triangle shape. I then thought about adding the sentiment. The color gold would compliment the red and green nicely, so I stamped a sentiment from the set with VersaMark ink, and embossed in gold embossing powder.
I considered adding texture with texture paste through a stencil, but this seemed like a “cleaner” card to me, and I wasn’t feeling texture paste was the way to go. Looking through my supplies, I found the String Panel Cover Die. If I cut this out of white and used it for the background, I felt it would add a subtle, modern, clean element of texture. After cutting it out, I saw that there were several triangle shapes within the strings. That gave me the idea to focus on one of the triangles by filling in part of the cover die with gold cardstock. It’s very easy to do this, just by die cutting another piece in gold, and inlaying the pieces you want.
Originally I was thinking of my three colors being 60% red, 30% green, and 10% gold. I planned to use gold for the sentiment and some embellishments, like thread and sequins. After I pieced in the gold cardstock rectangle, I convinced myself I still had about the right proportions of color if I used gold as the predominant color, followed by red and then green. To carry the gold into the flowers and create a more balanced look to the card, I used an embossing pen to color in the flower centers, then applied and heat set gold embossing powder.
You can see that this gold paper has a brushed finish to it, adding another touch of texture. To add the element of form, I used two different thicknesses of dimensional foam squares for the flowers and sentiment, and liquid glue to attach the leaves to the card front.
Thank you for stopping by my blog – I appreciate you! Give yourself permission to take care of yourself today and spend time doing what fills your heart!
Altenew products used: Altenew Linear Life: Poinsettias Outline Stamp Set Altenew Linear Life: Poinsettias Die Set Altenew Linear Life: Poinsettias Simple Coloring Stencil Altenew String Panel Cover Die Altenew Crisp Dye Ink mini cube set – Tea Party (Vineyard Berry and Pink Pearl) Altenew Fresh Dye Ink mini cube set – Frosted Foliage (Eucalyptus and Silver Sage)
Hello crafty friends! I have been participating in the Altenew Educator Certification program this past year. You may have seen some of my posts as I worked through the Level 1 and 2 programs. After completing the Level 1 and Level 2 programs, I am given a final challenge. I recently completed all of the online classes that make up the Level 2 program, and so I was given my Final Challege: Create four “Masculine cards” (using the themes Birthday, Thinking of You, Anniversary, and Encouragement) and one altered item/upcycled project. I also needed to use techniques covered in three of the classes that I took for Level 1 or Level 2 (my choice). I chose to focus on the Beautiful Details, Color Your Day, and Magical Marker classes
Before I started anything, I settled on some colors that I would try to stick to for all of my projects, so that there would be some kind of uniform theme to my challenge. I mainly used the three primary colors of red, yellow and blue, and then added orange, green, and teal as accents. I really like the fact that Altenew groups their inks into coordinating sets, so it makes color selection very easy, and always beautiful.
I was pretty excited to get challenged to make “masculine” cards, because I already had a set in mind that I wanted to purchase. I was very excited about the Wooden Rowboat dies, and the coordinating Boat Adventures stamps and dies. I also would have to get the Dotted Waves stencil or embossing cover die, or both! Off I went to order my new treasures (I mean, neccessary supplies). While I impatiently awaited their arrival, I decided to get started on one of the cards that I had in mind that wouldn’t use the Wooden Rowboat.
I started with my Thinking of You themed card. I’m not sure why, but when I think “masculine”, I often think of tie-dye. I had made a tie-dye card a few years back, using a coffee filter, and alcohol ink. I folded a round coffee filter in half, and then rolled it up into a tight cone. I tied it using a couple rubber bands, and then carefully painted 3 different colors of alcohol ink. It’s not true tie-dye, but it looks close enough, and it was fun. After my coffee filter dried, I used collage medium to adhere it to a card panel. The tie-dyed filter has some wrinkles and texture in it, so I chose a glossy black cardstock for the sentiment as a contrast. I also cut the Fancy For You sentiment two more times out of black watercolor paper to stack up and give the sentiment some dimension. The sub-sentiment is from the Sentiment Strips 3 stamp set. I used a black Copic sketch marker to color a few half circle embellishments black, and added them to the card as well. I layered the front panel on another piece of shiny black cardstock before attaching it to my A2 card base. The main class that I referenced to help create this card was the Color Your Day class. I love the instructor’s suggestion of thinking about colors in the 70-20-10 portions – 70% of the main color, 20% of a complimentary color, and 10% of an accent color. I also love that she said it was “about” those proportions. Noone is going to call you out for 68-17-15. There are no color proportion police, at least not where I live. It’s a good starting point for sure. I did hold back on this card, and kept it to 3 colors plus black and white.
For my Happy Birthday themed card, I was inspired by the Magical Marker Techniques class. I have a bunch of Copic Sketch markers, but I’m not really into coloring stamped images with them. I’m not very good at it. I need to focus on practicing to get better. In the mean time, the Magical Marker class got me thinking about these wonderful tools I have, but never use. I had recently seen another marker technique, where you start by coloring stripes on a piece of cardstock, and then cut that into strips of paper, which you can piece together to make a background. When I think of a guy’s birthday card, I usually think of primary colors and balloons. I wanted my sentiment to stand out, similar to the first card, so I diecut the sentiment, placed it back into the negative image in the paper, and carefully applied a thin layer of light green Solar Paste (crocodile tears). Solar Paste is white, and has a shine when the light hits it. Since I also wanted the paste to have a light green color, I mixed in a small amount of Moss ink. To do this, press your ink pad on a craft mat, squeezing out a bit of ink. Then add a dollop of texture paste to it with a palette knife, and blend.
I stamped Happy Birthday for a sub-sentiment from the Sentiment Strips 3 set, using Altenew Moss ink. The balloon die cuts were from an older Tim Holtz set that I have (Circle Play). I just used a few coordinating colors of cardstock from my scrap bin. I cut a thin white frame with rectangular nesting dies, to add a little more interest. It turned out to be a fun card, with lots of dimension and textures!
Finally! My beautiful Altenew padded envelope (they do have the prettiest packaging) had arrived! Actually, it was only a couple of days, but you know how it is when you’re waiting! I had all sorts of ideas in my head… I could make an underwater scene with the rowboat upside down and fish swimming around, I could put a dog in a boat, I could make one to look like my rowboat when I was a child (aluminum)… the possibilities were endless! The reality was that I wasn’t even sure how big the die was, how it would fit on a card, or how to put it together yet. So for some of those bright ideas, after trying a couple different things, I realized it just wasn’t going to work. No worries, it’s a gorgeous set, and there are plenty of ways to use it! For me, the best thing to do is just to put it together, and then see where it takes me.
For my Encouragement themed card, I wanted to use the Dotted Waves coverplate die with the matching stencil. I’d probably use blues to color that, so I felt the Wooden Rowboat would look great in contrasting orange. I didn’t have any orange Altenew ink, so I used orange cardstock from my stash. I used a light grey speckled cardstock for the base of the boat which would look like the inside. For the shadows of the seats, I used the same cardstock as the base, but colored it with Distress Lost Shadow Ink. There’s no wondering why it’s named that – it’s perfect for shadows!
After I put the boat together, I ran a piece of 4.25 by 5.5 inch Neenah Solar White 110 lb cardstock through my Sizzix Big Shot, using the Dotted Waves Debossing Cover Die. I had been eyeing these coverplates that create texture by piercing tiny holes in the paper to create patterns. They’re just so beautiful, and so different than anything I’ve ever seen. Better yet, they won’t add any bulk to a card that is intended to be mailed. This waves pattern is so versatile; it doesn’t have to just be used for waves. It adds so much motion and movement, and only takes a minute to transform a plain piece of cardstock. If I can recommend one product out of this entire challenge, this would definitely be it! For just a few dollars more, go ahead and get the coordinating stencil. You’ll be very happy you did!
I used the Lapis Lazuli Crisp Dye mini ink cube set to blend an ombre effect onto the Dotted Waves panel, using the Dotted Waves Stencil. These are probably my favorite blues. When I began focusing on Altenew products and techniques, I purchased the inks in the mini cube sets. Now I know which colors I always reach for, so moving forward, I know which full size ink pads I will begin my collection with.
I have some really cool paper that is actually very thin wood. It’s called wood veneer cardstock. I’m sure several different suppliers make it. If you decide to look for it, make sure it is called cardstock somewhere in the name, so you know you can cut it like cardstock. It doesn’t fall apart as I thought it might, being so thin. I knew it would be perfect for the oars. You can also use ink to color it. For this card, I wanted the details to matter, and I was inspired by the Beautiful Details class. In the class, the instructor used beautiful coloring and painting techniques to add gorgeous details to her cards. That it not really my forte, so I went with what I prefer, which is beautiful details in a mixed media sense. On this card, I used the wood veneer for the oars, I added a jewelry jump ring to appear to hold the red and whiite rope (another beautiful detail) to the bow of the boat, and I made a post out of woodgrain paper cardstock to look like an algae covered aged post in the water, anchoring the boat safely in the harbor. I colored the wooden post with Distress Vintage Photo Ink, then used Distress Crayons to darken the grain and add some green algae at the water level. I cut a small slit in the background to insert the botton of the post into, to make it look like it was coming out of the water. The sentiment is black ink with clear embossing powder on the same speckled grey that I used in the boat. The card panel was attached to an A2 cardbase with dimensional foam tape.
My final card for this challenge is an Anniversary themed card. I used techniques and inspiration from both the Color Your Day and Beautiful Details classes. I was looking through my other dies and stamps, and came across this fishing pole, and the sentiment “You’re the best catch of all”. I thought it would go together great with the rowboat. Wouldn’t it be cute if the fishing pole had caught a heart? That gave me the idea to use red for the heart as well as the color of the rowboat (Heart Beat and Vineyard Berry from the Tea Party ink cube set). I wanted to have a different background than the Dotted Waves. I found this Altenew Patterned Play Diamonds stamp. In one of the classes, the instructor suggested to look at your patterned stamps from different perspectives. Turn it sideways, or just use a portion of it. Stamp or stencil at an angle, not straight up and down. I tried this with the Patterned Play Diamonds stamp, and to me it looked more like a fish net than diamonds, so I thought it would be perfect for this card. I used inspiration from the several different classes that focused on colors. Red and teal would be part of a triad on the color wheel with yellow, but I decided to try red, blue, teal, black, white, and a touch of silver on the fishing pole. I used three of the Sweet Dreams Fresh Dye ink mini cube set for the background – Dew Drops, Aqualicious, and Teal Cave. I pressed (smooshed) the cube on my craft mat, spritzed with water, and picked it up with my watercolor cardstock. I used several layers of colors, drying in between. I wanted to add some spatters, so I used an Altenew Watercolor Marker in Dusk. After I got the background finished, I decided the blue seats in the rowboat were distracting, so I cut another set and colored them with Teal Cave ink. I like the harmony of this card better, sticking with just the red and teal colors. The theme song from the old TV show “Love Boat” popped into my head, so I added some tiny letters from the Sizzix Specimen set to spell “LOVE” on my boat. More Beautiful Details that make a nice card into a special card!
For the final piece of the challenge, I made this altered item. I actually started making this alongside the cards that I made. It took a longer time to design in my mind, and I had to keep playing and experimenting with ideas. That what makes this my favorite! I wanted to use the boat, and have the scene be a lake view on a pretty summer day. We are currently building a lake house in Central Pennsylvania in the beautiful Laurel Highlands area, so that was my inspiration. I had this empty clock case which is a Tim Holtz Idea-ology piece made specifically for altering. I wanted to fill the inside of the clock with layers of different pieces of the scene. Most of the layers are separated with dimensional foam tape, layered up on the back piece of the clock, which comes off.
I started by watercoloring a wispy summer sky with the two lighter blues from the Lapis Lazuli ink cube set (Iceberg and Eastern Sky) , along with Pink Pearl and Coral Bliss from the Tea Party ink cube set. I die cut the sun out of a piece of watercolor paper I had in my scrap box. using the Sizzix Circle Play die set again. The paper was most likely made using Distress Scattered Straw ink. I cut three layers of clouds out of vellum, and layered them on to the sky using dimentional tape. To create the trees, I used different shades of green cardstock, which I cut with the Sizzix Forest Shadows die, and added texture with the Tropical Forest ink cube set. I used the Dotted Waves stencil and two Distress Oxide inks (Uncharted Mariner and Bundled Sage) to create the water, so it would be different. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but I have two layers of water… one closer to the back, behind the sentiment, and one in front of the sentiment, directly behind the boat.
I created my boat out of heavystock kraft paper. I wanted to paint it and sand it, to have an aged look. I started with light blue, but changed my mind while I was putting it all together at the end. Just like a real boat, I just painted it over with orange. To get the shadow for the seats, I simply painted Versamark embossing ink, which is also a watermark ink, instead of using the die cut layer. I also didn’t use the trim piece for the seats. It’s okay… you don’t HAVE to use every piece of a die cut set just because it’s there! Also, to get the boat to fit into my clock, I had to cut the boat. To make sure I didn’t mess up, I cut a template of the boat from a scrap piece of paper, trimmed that to the size I needed (it took some experimenting), and then used that as a pattern to cut the actual die that would go into the project.
It is a little hard to see from the photo, but I added Tim Holtz “tiny lights” on the inside of my project. You can usually find little fairy lights like this at your local craft store or dollar store too. I used small, thin foam dimensional squares to stick the lights inside the clock case. I think you are not supposed to put tape or glue on the actual lights, because it can short out the strand, so make sure to just use adhesive on the wire part.
The Boat Adventures sentiment was stamped on white paper, cut with the coordinating die, and layered with 6 layers of clear embossing powder, just to give it dimension, depth, and a little rigidity.
This challenge was lots of fun for me, especially because there was an altered item included. Besides making cards, this is one of my favorite things to ddo! Thanks for stopping by my blog. Wish me luck on passing this challenge! I appreciate you!
Altenew products used: Boat Adventures Sentiment Stamp Set Boat Adventures Die Set Dotted Waves Debossing Cover Die Dotted Waves Simple Coloring Stencil Wooden Rowboat Die Set Pattern Play – Diamond Stamp Set Sentiment Strips 3 Stamp Set Fancy Celebrate Die Fancy For You Die Crisp Dye Mini Ink Sets – Tea Party, Lapis Lazuli, Tropical Forest Fresh Dye Mini Ink Sets – Sweet Dreams Watercolor Marker – Dusk
Also used: Honey Bee Stamps Lovely Layers Rod and Reel dies Honey Bee Stamps Hooked on You stamps Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlits Circle Play Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlits Specimen Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlits Forest Shadows Ranger Distress Ink – Vintage Photo, Lost Shadow Ranger Distress Oxide Ink – Bundled Sage, Uncharted Mariner Ranger Distress Paint – Black Soot, Carved Pumpkin Ranger Distress Crayons Ranger Simon Hurley Solar Paste – Crocodile Tears Copic Sketch Markers – R27, YR04, YR09, Y19, YG63, B32, B34, 100
Hello creative friends! Today I’m sharing a card that I made after participating in Altenew Academy’s Masking Unleashed online course. This is my last course in the Level 2 Altenew Educator Certification Program! Soon I will get to see what my final project assignment will be! I can’t wait!
The inspiration for this card came from one of the backgrounds that was demonstrated during the second lesson in the course. The instructor used a wreath shaped die to create a mask out of masking paper. She blended a lighter toned neautral ink over that, and then lifted the mask off, rotated it slightly, and placed it down again. She blended ink over the top of the mask a second time. She thoroughly ink blended over her entire panel, so in the end, the panel was a consistent color, except for the wreath images of course. It was a very classy card, in my opinion.
I used her masking idea. I created masks of the leaves out of the Jumbo Garden Picks Layering Die Set. These leaves seemed to be better laid out in a straight line, so that’s what I did. I placed the leaf masks on a piece of Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock, and lightly blended over them with Frayed Leaf Crisp Dye Ink from the Green Fields set, using a blending brush. If I had to pick only one set of green ink pads, this would be it. I just love these colors! I carefully removed the masks, turned them around on the card (from top to bottom) and blended over them again. I intentially did not cover the whole panel with the Frayed Leaf ink, leaving some white space. I then added some of the darker green in this grouping – Forest Glades – around the edges of the panel. Covering my masked areas, I spattered the darkest green (Evergreen) and some white Gouache onto my panel.
To give the edges of the panel some interest, I die cut the panel with a wonky stitched rectangular die. I think any kind of decorative edge would look nice with this card. Use what you have. You could even add some handdrawn lines if you prefer. A white Gel pen would look nice!
I wanted to add another layer of leaves, so I die cut another set out of vellum. I also decided to diecut the leaf layers from vellum. To give the leaf layers some color, and to make them more defined, I blended a little of the Evergreen ink onto the back of the vellum pieces. This is a great idea, because you can add a waterbased ink for color, but it won’t rub off, because it will be on the back side of the layer. I used the tiniest bit of Ranger Collage Medium to attach the green layer to the bottom layer of the leaves, and then glued those pieces in place on my card, setting them askew to the masked leaves. For my sentiment, I chose the Fancy Hugs die. I cut it out of a pearl white specialty paper, and then layered it on two more pieces of cardstock for dimension.
I just love the ethereal feel that I was able to create with this card. It seems so calming and soothing to me, using this green color scheme. The two layers of masking, combined with the vellum, is just a match made in heaven! Thank you for stopping by my blog, and Happy Making Season! Although this isn’t really a seasonal card, I’m looking for just the right poinsettia die that I could use this technique with. After all, part of this whole making thing is the collecting thing, am I right?
Altenew products used: Altenew Jumbo Garden Picks Layering Die Set Altenew Fancy Hugs Die Altenew Crisp Dye Ink mini cube set – Green Fields
Hello creative friends! Today I’m sharing a card that I made after participating in Altenew Academy’s Magical Marker Techniques online course.
The inspiration for this card came from one of the backgrounds that was demonstrated during the course videos. The instructor used an Altenew stencil (which I don’t have) to create a free-hand looking striped background. In the next lesson, she spoke about using stencils in a different way than they look like they should be used at first glance. For example, she used only part of an all-over diamond diagonal stencil by turning it on the diagonal (which would be straight on her card) and only used a few diamonds in her design. I used a straight up and down vertical stencil, but turned it on the diagonal, to make diagonal stripes. I must have holidays and candy canes on my mind, because I immediately thought of using red!
As in the lesson video, I used three different red markers. I used my Copic Sketch markers, as those are the alcohol markers that I have, and I drew the stripes on a piece of white Yupo paper.
I used my favorite die set from Altenew, the Craft-A-Flower Sulfur Cosmos dies, to cut out both flowers and one of each leaf. I cut them out of colored cardstock that I had in my stash. To use the markers in a different way, I loosely traced the detailed lines from the dies to add some depth to my flowers and leaves. Up close you can see that I wasn’t very precise, but I’m sure the recipient won’t be looking that closely! I think it did add a nice touch to the flowers especially. I also used my fingers to shape the flower petals to add dimension, and used double sided tape to adhere the flowers to the card. For the sentiment, I used a simple two layer Peace die from a different manufacturer. I wanted it to feel like a Christmas Card!
Thank you for stopping by my blog, and Happy Making Season! Even if you can only find time to make one card, go ahead and do it! You can make one person on your list feel extra special!
Vicki Fedor 