Altenew Class of 2017 Inspiration Challenge Continued

Hello there!  Today I have another card for this month's Altenew Inspiration Challenge which is to choose a previous month from 2017 and use it as our inspiration.  This will be my third card for the challenge which makes me feel a bit better since I really didn't get to participate too much this year.  I guess the timing never worked out with everything else I was doing.

As I've mentioned previously, Beautiful Day, from Altenew, is my absolute favorite Altenew Stamp Set and might even be my all time favorite. It's definitely the set that has seen the most use. I have other sets from Altenew that I love but Beautiful day was my first purchase from them and it was love at first sight. I love to stamp them in some or all of the layers or watercolor them. Today's card involved a bit of both. My inspiration for this card was from the June 2017 Inspiration Challenge pictured here. This card is for a friend using a background stamp she designed so I wanted to combine it with Beautiful Day, whose blooms always make me think of Wild Roses rather than Peonies.

For my card, I started by stamping the background onto Canson Bristol Paper using Papertrey Ink's Cover-Up: Diamonds with Versamark Ink, heat setting with Antique Gold Embossing Powder, and then adding some loose watercolor using Lavender Moon, Sweet Blush and Vintage Jadeite Re-inkers. I also gave that background a generous amount of Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels) and let it dry overnight. It wasn't that it needed to dry overnight; I just never got back to it yesterday.  It was good to leave it for that long to get an accurate idea of what colors I wanted to use for the blooms. It can be hard to tell when the paper is really wet. Because this warps my paper, I flatten it back out my giving it a light mist of water and then running it through my die cut machine face up with an embossing pad and a clean plate on top.  I started by stamping and heat embossing all of my elements in Versamark onto Canson Bristol Paper and heat setting with the same Antique Gold Embossing Powder that I used for my background.  Since I was planning to use lots of water and shimmer mist, this works the best.  

Now hindsight being what it is, I wish I would have stamped that lightest layer with Lilac Grace Ink but I actually forgot about that color until I was completely finished assembling this card. I used Lavender Moon for the lightest layer, then Winter Wisteria for the 2nd Layer and Plum Pudding for those deepest shadow layers. The thing I really love about Lavender Moon is the kind of Mauve color that is not fully pink or purple.  It makes it a great candidate to work with either color.  For the leaves I stamped the full layer in Vintage Jadeite and the detail layer in New Leaf.  For the filler images, I used Vintage Jadeite and Lavender Moon Re-inkers with a water brush.  I have a mister bottle that has just water in it and once good spritz of this makes the paper damp enough to let the color spread out smoothly rather than having a harsh edge or line of color.  It's just my preference for this style of card.

I die cut my background using the WPLUS9 Gift Card Layers Die and adhered that to a top folding card base made from Stamper's Select White Cardstock. I like to use my Teflon bone folder to help smooth this out and make sure it is well adhered. Next I die cut all of the floral elements with the Beautiful Day Coordinating Dies then arranged them on my card base. When I had them arranged how I liked, I used a piece of  Press-N-Seal over the top to pick up and flip over my arrangement.  I put a strip of Kokuyo dot runner on the back of each piece I had access to then laid it back down on my card front.  Once I pressed each element into place, I pulled back the Press N Seal. Then I went back with some Ranger Multi Medium Matte to anything that had movement left in it. That happens a lot when you have lots of layers. I even used a narrow little strip of Foam Tape under a few pieces where I thought there should be a bit of dimension and the sentiment banner as well.  I love how the sentiment from Beautiful Day fits on my Papertrey Ink Number The Stars Banner Die and I use it this way almost every time.  I did not cut my sentiment apart to stamp this way; this is how it was originally designed and it's a perfect fit.

I know you can't really see the shimmer on everything, but it's there.  In fact, that shimmer is what causes the glare that makes it hard to photograph. Even though I ended up using somewhat different colors than in the Inspiration Image, I love how this turned out. Since the person I am giving the card to loves Pink as I do, I know she will enjoy this colorful presentation of blooms.  I added a few green and purple sequins for that finishing touch.

I want to give you a little tip while I am remembering to share this with you.  Sometimes, when your card gets very front heavy with lots of beautiful layers, your card might not want to stand upright. You can help balance the weight by adding a cardstock insert for the inside sentiment.  Even a lighter weight cardstock helps quite a bit.  I don't like to stamp the sentiments directly onto my cardbase in case I make a mistake but I know it uses more cardstock to do it my way and I'm okay with that.

Believe it or not, I still have a few months of Altenew Inspiration Challenges that I hope to get to before the end of the month.

Altenew Beautiful Day Shop at: SSS | ALT	Altenew Beautiful Day Dies Shop at: SSS | ALT	Altenew Beautiful Day Stamp & Die Bundle Shop at: ALT	Canson Bristol Paper Shop at: SSS
Cuttlebug Die Cutting Machine Shop at: SSS	Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Shop at: SSS	Press 'N Seal Shop at: SSS	PTI Cover Up: Diamonds Shop at: PTI
PTI Perfect Match Lavender Moon Ink Shop at: PTI	PTI Perfect Match Plum Pudding Ink Shop at: PTI	PTI Perfect Match Winter Wisteria Ink Shop at: PTI	PTI Stamper's Select White Cardstock Shop at: PTI
Ranger Multi Medium Matte Shop at: SSS	Scotch 3M Foam Tape Shop at: SSS	Spellbinders Embossing Mat Shop at: SSS	SSS Antique Gold Embossing Powder Shop at: SSS
Teflon Bone Folder Shop at: SSS	Tsukinko Sheer Sparkle Shimmer Spritz Shop at: SSS	Versamark Ink Shop at: PTI | SSS	Wagner Heat Tool Shop at: SSS