Altenew February 2018 Release Blog Hop + Giveaway

Edited on 2/13/2018 to add:  The winner has been selected by random draw and will be announced on my blog here tomorrow.  You must claim your gift certificate by February 28th.

I am so honored to be a part of the Altenew February 2018 Release and Blog Hop today.  There are nine new stamp sets, eleven new dies and three new ink families available in Cubes or Full Size Ovals. Re-inkers are available now as well.  The Tea Party Collection includes Pink Pearl, Coral Bliss, Heart Beat and Vineyard Berry. Green Meadows Collection includes Minty Mint, Sweet Leaf, Just Green and Hunter Green. The Sweet Dreams Collection includes Dew Drops, Aqualicious, Teal Cave and Galactic Stream; twelve dreamy new colors to go with my Altenew collection of stamps and dies.  There are also prizes, so be sure to read all the way through this post to find out how you can have a chance to win. You should have arrived here from Nicole Picadura's Blog. This is a HUGE blog hop, so if you didn't start at the beginning you might want to go back and start again.  If I counted right, there are 31 stops in the hop. Here is your blog hop order for today:  

Altenew Card Blog

Jennifer McGuire

Lydia Evans

Enza Gudor

Yana Smakula

Yoonsun Hur

Anna Kossakovskaya

Virginia Lu

Simon Says Stamp Blog

May Sukyong Park

Anna Komenda

Altenew Scrapbook Blog

Vicky Papaioannou

Debby Hughes

Justine Hovey

Erum Tasneem

Create & Craft TV Blog

Lilith Eeckels

Dana Gong

Kymona Tracey

Olga Moss

Svitlana Shayevich

Kristina Pokazanieva

Sandra Dietrich

Galina Filippenko

Nicole Picadura

Vicki Finger (You are here)

Therese Calvird

Reiko Tsuchida

Mindy Baxter

Laura Bassen

Late last summer, I had asked Tasnim for her opinion of a stamp set that I had designed. It was my first one (one of only two attempted so far) and while I knew what I wanted the sentiments to say, I also knew that my illustrations were probably not all that desirable. I didn't and still don't claim to be able to draw and I have only a very basic understanding of how to actually use Adobe Illustrator.  That said, there have been many times I wished for a stamp set that actually had these quotes and sentiments for sending to friends. "Wings of Hope" was born out of that desire.


One friend in particular was the start of card making for me in 2015.  Her mom was battling a particularly aggressive form of Thyroid Cancer and she had left her job of more than 20 years and left her home to be able to move back to her hometown to take her mom back and forth to MD Anderson in Houston.  For the last 12 months or so of her mom's life, I think Karen got at least one card from me every single week. She told me last week that she has every card I've ever sent her. During this same time, another dear friend was undergoing the fight of her life battling Breast Cancer.  I often wrote an Emily Dickinson quote inside the cards I sent to her. Not long after that, yet another friend was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and again I wished for a stamp set that had these sentiments.

As you might imagine, I was beyond thrilled when Tasnim said that with a few changes, she would like to have the set for Altenew.  To make a long story short, we agreed to collaborate. Tasnim illustrated the set and the images are designed to be arranged as a focal point or as accents to frame any of the sentiments.  The sentiments can be used inside a card as well.  As I was playing with my set, I thought of other Altenew Stamps and Dies I have that would pair well with these sentiments and I have lots to show you today!  There is a set of coordinating dies although I don't have them.  I'll be shopping first thing today for my set of dies.  You can also buy the Wings of Hope Bundle.

Wings of Hope was designed with a couple of poignant quotes and other encouraging sentiments for anyone who may be going through a tough or difficult time in their life – such as the loss of a friend or family member, or a serious health issue. Or, they may just need a little encouragement from the occasionally difficult realities of life. Use the sentiments to let them know that you’re thinking of them and that you’re there if they need you. The images can be used to create a focal point or to help frame your sentiment on a card.

My first card today uses Wings of Hope with images included in the set.  I love the very free flowing, organic nature of all Tasnim's illustrations in this set. I started by stamping the Emily Dickinson quote in Versamark and heat embossed it with Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  The Flowers were stamped using Rose Quartz and Pinkalicious Altenew Crisp Inks.  For the green inks I used Frayed Leaf with Forest Glades.  I had a few die cuts on my desk from other projects and used one of those here (Painted Butterflies) along with a few sparkling clear sequins for a touch of bling.  I used a bright pink cardstock for my background panel and a pale grey cardstock for my card base.

For my next project, I used Frosty Pink and Coral Berry (Red Cosmos Collection) for the flowers and Frayed Leaf for the foliage along with Antique Gold Embossing Powder and gold watercolor splatter. This card base is made from Altenew Spicy Yogurt Cardstock.  I cut a simple mask for the bloom so that I could stamp the foliage to appear behind the flower.

Next I paired one of the sentiments in the set with my favorite Altenew Floral, Beautiful Day.  I used a panel of metallic gold shimmer cardstock with a card base made from True Black Cardstock. The heat embossing for all of my cards today features Antique Gold Embossing Powder. I had a few of these leaves and blooms on my desk that I had previously water colored using Altenew Re-inkers.  The color I used here was Pinkalicious for the blooms.  I love that I can use my Altenew Crisp Inks to watercolor with.  I also really love that Altenew does pastels so well.  Many pastel inks just seem to have a dingy gray or brown cast to them once they are stamped but that is not the case with Altenew Crisp Dye Inks.

I automatically thought of the Painted Butterflies Stamp and Die Bundle each time I stamped this quote, and so I had to get that set out for this next card. I used a piece of Gold Shimmer Cardstock for the background panel that had been embossed with an embossing folder.  The card base is #110 white cardstock. For the inks I used Turquoise with Tide Blue (Deep Blue Seas Collection), Rose Quartz with Puffy Heart (Rose Petals Collection), and Lavender Fields with Deep Iris (Shades of Purple Collection).  The outline images were stamped in Versamark and heat set with Antique Gold Embossing Powder.

And finally, my last card for today uses Altenew Painted Flowers Stamps and Dies. I used Frosty Pink with Coral Berry (Red Cosmos Collection) for the peachy toned rose, Rose Quartz with Puffy Heart (Rose Petal Collection) for the pink rose and the yellow inks are from elsewhere. My card base is made from a light pink cardstock. I am anxious to add Pocketful of Sunshine to my collection of Altenew Crisp Inks (along with today's new color releases) but they were sold out.  I've already placed my order this morning for those along with the new color collections.  Be sure to sign up for the e-mail notification any time something is out of stock so you'll know right away when they are back in stock.  The thing I most love about Altenew inks is that they come in color families so when you are doing multi-step stamping, you don't have to guess what colors to use.  Sometimes I like to stamp outside the realm of normal and expected, but sometimes, I just want to do something easy but still beautiful and the color families do that for me. 

I would be hard pressed to choose a favorite out of today's projects.  I love them all and I am so thrilled to have my first stamp set out there.  I don't know if I will have any other ideas in the future, but I wouldn't hesitate to bring forward an idea again.  There aren't enough words to thank Tasnim for being my illustrator and encouraging me.

I hope you all enjoyed the projects I did today. I have many more coming projects coming to my blog and Instagram over the next few weeks. Since we are building a new home in another state, I haven't had as much time lately to use a couple of "new to me" sets including Build-A-Flower Sakura Blossom and Build-A-Flower Carnation which is set to be delivered in today's mail.
To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to SIX lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or Altenew Scrapbook Blog by Wednesday, February 14th for a chance to win. Six winners will be announced on the Altenew blogs on 2/16/2018.

Altenew is also letting me do a GIVEAWAY of a $30.00 Gift Certificate here on my blog. You must leave a comment here before Midnight on February 11, 2018 to be eligible to win. The winner will be selected and announced on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2018 here on my blog that day!  

Your next stop on the hop is the lovely and talented Therese Calvird.  Can I just say what an absolute thrill it is for me to hop along with so many of the ladies whose work I admire?  Please be sure to hop along and see all of the amazing new products from Altenew's February 2018 Release.  I've included as many links as possible for you to the Altenew Store  and you can find those products by simply clicking the link in the highlighted words.  Don't forget to comment on this post and on the Altenew Card and/or Scrapbook Blog to be eligible for the giveaways.

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  It means the world to me when you do!  The supplies I've used are linked below for your convenience (affiliate links may be used).

Altenew Antique Gold Crisp Embossing Powder Shop at: ALT	Altenew Deep Blue Seas Mini Cube Set Shop at: ALT	Altenew Deep Blue Seas Oval Ink Pad Set Shop at: ALT	Altenew February 2018 Mini Cube Bundle Shop at: ALT
Altenew Green Fields Mini Cube Collection Shop at: ALT	Altenew Green Meadows Collection Shop at: ALT	Altenew Pocketful of Sunshine Mini Cube Collection Shop at: ALT	Altenew Red Cosmos Mini Cube Collection Shop at: ALT
Altenew Red Cosmos Oval Collection Shop at: ALT	Altenew Rose Petal Mini Cube Collection Shop at: ALT	Altenew Spicy Yogurt Cardstock Shop at: ALT	Altenew Sweet Dreams Collection Shop at: ALT
Altenew Tea Party Collection Shop at: ALT	Altenew Wings of Hope Bundle Shop at: ALT	Altenew Wings of Hope Die Set Shop at: ALT	Altenew Wings of Hope Stamp Set Shop at: ALT