Workshop Report

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!

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!

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

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.

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!

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!

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!

Take a look at these beauties, made by my new friend Saskia from the Netherlands! That Craft-A-Flower Open Peony Die 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?

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!

Altenew products used:
Altenew Craft-A-Flower: Gardenia Layering Die Set
Altenew Elegant Swirls Stencil
Altenew Leaf Drops Stencil
Altenew Feathery Stencil
Altenew Fancy Hugs Die
Altenew Dynamic Duo: Dainty Roses
Altenew ink pads – Summer Afternoon Fresh Dye Ink (Warm Sunshine), Sugarplums Fresh Dye Ink (Amethyst, Grape Agate, Plum), Tropical Forest Fresh Dye Ink (Olive, Moss)
Altenew Embossing Paste
Altenew Sequins – Antique Gold

Products also featured:
Ranger Transparent Matte Texture Paste
Sizzix Tim Holtz Shaping Kit

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