Altenew Educator - Seasonal Scene Building

Hello there!  I hope you are having a great week so far.  We are on our fourth day of rain in a row and I am needing some sunshine, so I decided to come into the studio and finish a project for my AECP Class - Seasonal Scene Building.  I wasn't sure where to head with this one, mostly because there are so many possibilities. In the end, I incorporated a few different techniques for my card.

Tulip Magnolia

I have a new die (PTI Shape Shifters Oval #2) that I had to wait a few months for it to even come back in stock, so I knew I wanted to use that for my card, as a frame for my scene.  I die cut one and set it aside.  Then I stamped and heat embossed three blooms from Altenew's Magnolias for Her Stamp Set onto Arches Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper.  This is actually one of my favorites and also one of my favorite spring trees because of the gorgeous blooms.  I like all types of magnolia trees but I am especially drawn to Magnolia Coral Lake and Tulip Magnolia trees. I was actually going for more of the Tulip Magnolia Color today.  Part of the reason that I am not all that great with Watercolor is that I am far too impatient to let it dry between layers in the normal way I make cards.  So I need to have a couple of projects going simultaneously in order to be patient enough for the layers.

It's not that I ever plan out a whole card and then assemble.  I totally fly by the seat of my pants pretty much all the time.  I usually have in mind what type of card I want to make and probably a particular stamp set selected, but that's about it.  The rest of it gets done on the fly all the way down to the cardstock I put it on.  I've developed a love for simple but elegant styling and that's mostly what I tend to stick to.  I also really love a crisp white card base most of the time, even if I'm completely covering the front of the card with something else.

A couple of weekends ago, one of my grandsons, who starts his Senior Year in High School tomorrow, was here and I was showing him about alcohol inks and we spend one entire afternoon just trying out different techniques in the studio.  We were just playing and you don't have much control over what happens anyhow with alcohol inks.  But because of that, I have several background pieces already done up.  Most of them were also foiled in my Minc.  It's hard to tell how much gold will transfer to an alcohol inked background so you just have to run it through and see.  This particular piece didn't pick up too much of the gold but there's a little of it there making it look a little like a piece of agate or granite with some gold veins.  This particular one I thought would also make a great "sky" colored background which is why I decided to use it for this card.  There's a tiny bit of lavender in the color mix as well, but I often see that in Texas skies, especially in the evening when the sun starts to set.  I really love how this worked out for this card and I think it made for the perfect background for my frame.  I sued the largest Oval from PTI Noted: Scalloped A2 Set to die cut this.  It did cover up the pierced line but left that beautiful edge on the white die cut.

In addition to the blooms, I like to put them on the branch from Altenew's Vintage Flowers Stamp and Die Bundle.  Once I had the card finished, I realized I had just about obscured the branch, but if you look for it you will see it coming from the top left to the bottom right of the oval.  Since I put a vellum banner under my Sentiment, it covered up even more than the blooms did, but once the Multi Medium Matte was dry, there was no going back.

At this angle, you can really see the gold foiled veining on the alcohol inked background and the gold foil cardstock as the shadow for the sentiment.

In this picture, you can see it, but you can't really tell it's gold so I wanted to give you both views.  I wanted to add some bling since the gold is pretty subtle on this background but I didn't have any sequins the right shade so I added some little gems.  Just a little touch of sparkle was the right touch here.

I hope you enjoyed this Spring Scene that I created here.  I've linked the supplies below for your convenience (Affiliate Links may be used).  The Magnolias for Her Stamp Set  is one of the 4 x 6 sets so it's a more affordable option than the larger sets.  The bundle is also really affordable.

Altenew Antique Gold Crisp Embossing Powder Shop at: ALT	Altenew Magnolia For Her Dies Shop at: ALT	Altenew Magnolias For Her Stamp & Die Bundle Shop at: ALT	Altenew Magnolias For Her Stamp Set Shop at: ALT
Altenew Rose Petals Reinker Set Shop at: ALT	Arches Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper 9 x 12 #140 Shop at: SSS	Cuttlebug Die Cutting Machine Shop at: SSS	Decofoil Transfer Sheets Bulk Pack Shop at: SSS
Heidi Swap Minc Machine Shop at: SSS	Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Shop at: SSS	Marvy Jewel Picker Shop at: SSS	MISTI Stamping Tool Shop at: SSS | ALT | GKD
PTI Stamper's Select Vellum (#44) 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
Scrapbook Adhesives Thin 3D Foam Squares Shop at: SSS	Silver Black Velvet Size 2 Shop at: SSS	Silver Black Velvet Size 4 Shop at: SSS	SSS Big Thanks Die Shop at: SSS
Teflon Bone Folder Shop at: SSS	Thermoweb Decofoil Transfer Gel Shop at: SSS	Versamark Ink Shop at: SSS	Wagner Heat Tool Shop at: SSS