Altenew Celebrating Parents Card Drive Blog Hop + Giveaway

Hello Everyone!! Welcome to the Altenew 2020 Celebrating Parents Card Drive and Blog Hop sponsored by Altenew. Now more than ever, our elderly parents or grandparents are isolated and many who live in nursing homes can't have visitors due to the outbreak of the Corona Virus. Our elderly are particularly susceptible to the virus since as we age, our immune systems become weaker.  Altenew holds a Card Drive for these folks annually and this year they will be collecting cards from 3/3/2020 to 4/20/2020.  

Altenew 

ATTN: Card Drive 

6179 East Molloy Road 

East Syracuse, NY 13057

I hope you are all doing well during this difficult time.  We are self-isolating since we are just outside the Dallas Metroplex where they have a Shelter In Place order in effect from the Governor.  You all stay safe out there as well.  Let's get on to the projects!

I have four cards for you today.  This first card was totally inspired by my crafty friend and fellow Altenew Educator, Amber Rain Davis.  I linked her blog as she has an awesome one.  She did a card similar to this one in a YouTube Video found here.

I used a different stamp set, but the technique was the same.  I started coloring the petals with a Sunset Pink Pencil and then using a blending stump to move that pencil around in the direction of the petals. I didn't use any Gamsol or Mineral Spirits.  This is a dry blending of the charcoal rather than covering the entire petal with color.  For the center of the blooms, I added in some deep, more concentrated color and also some white highlights. When it came time to do the leaves that go with this set, I stamped them directly onto a Spicy Yogurt 4.25 x 5.5 panel and then went back in with Charcoal pencil to add the idea of some veins.

Once I had it colored and blended out, I stamped the image again, using Versamark this time and heat set it with Golden Peach Embossing Powder.  Using different thicknesses of foam tape, I place the blooms on the front panel and attached it to a Nude Metallic Card Base.

Between when I made this first card (in February) and now, I took the Artists Watercolor 101 for Paper Crafters over at Altenew Academy.  Emily Midgett teaches this class.  I have taken other classes, but until now, it just hasn't clicked for me.  I think the problem was not having the proper tools to do the job!  I changed two main things.  Instead of using Reinkers, I am using high-quality Watercolors and I am using (for the first time) Cold Pressed Watercolor Paper.  My particular preference at this time is Fabriano Artistico Extra White Cold Pressed #140 paper.  Lots of people like Arches Cold-Pressed, but I tried both and prefer the Fabriano.  Altenew just came out with a watercolor paper in the last few days and I hope to be able to try some out in the future.

My next cards all use the Floral Art Stamp Set again only this time I paired it up with the leaves from the Beautiful Heart Stamp Set.  I love the leaves in that set and so I decided to pair the two sets up for my focal image.  I especially like that the leaves are large enough to watercolor which I am into very much right now.  I try to show all the different ways to use the same set and regular stamping didn't even enter into it this time around.  That's probably because I'm taking a watercolor class over at Altenew Academy right now, so I'm more into line images rather than filling them in with stamped in color.

On this card, I heat embossed the images onto Fabriano Artistico Extra White Cold Pressed #140 Watercolor Paper with Gold Embossing Powder and then watercolored them using Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors.  Since this was one of my first projects for class, there are lots of light layers here.  I used a sentiment from the Extra Special Stamp Set that says "Happy Mothers Day".  I used some patterned paper for the background layer.

Next up is my favorite of the three cards.  For this particular bloom, I used one of Emily's Wet on Wet Techniques from the class to create an "underpainting". I used Quinacridone Pink with Finetec Gold Metallic Paint.  Once I let that completely dry, I stamped the bloom on top of that piece and proceeded to paint over it.  In person, you can really see the shimmer and shine of the underpainting and I love the intensity of color in this bloom.

To keep this card clean and simple I chose to put the bloom on a plain white card base and even put the sentiment on a white little tag. The watercolored images are the focal point of the card which is how it should be.

Altenew Card Blog

Kristina Pokazanieva

Jaycee Gaspar

TaeEun Yoo

Virginia Lu

Alex Syberia

Gayatri Murali

Hussena Calcuttawala

Aya Elsheshtawy

Nicole Watt

Vicki Finger 

Laura Volpes

Norine Borys

Arjita Sepaha Singh

LauraJane

Seeka

Terri Koszler

Michelle Murray

Giving Back Info - 20% of the profits from these products (Thanks, Dad Stamp Set, World’s Best Dad Stamp Set, Best Mom Stamp Set, Extra Special Stamp Set, Beautiful Lady Stamp Set, Painted Butterflies Stamp Set, Sweet Bow Enamel Pin, Stay Awesome Enamel Pin) until Father’s Day, June 21st, 2020, will be donated to the Food Bank of Central New York to support seniors in need.

Prizes:  Altenew is giving away a $30 gift certificate to 6 lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog for a chance to win. We’ll also draw a winner to receive a $15 gift certificate from the comments left on each designer’s blog on the blog hop list below. All winners will be announced on the Altenew Card Blog on 4/5/2020.

I had time to make several cards since I started the class at Altenew Academy as it was great practice and now that this blog post is finally going live, I'll be able to share these over in the Classroom at Altenew Academy.  If you are interested in the class, here is the link to it.  Totally the best $9.00 I ever spent for a class!

Once this blog post goes live, I am planning to enter this next card into this month's Altenew Inspiration Challenge found here. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope that you'll share your thoughts with me!  Be sure to stop at all the links along the hop as there will be fantastic inspiration for you!

In addition, you can always find the current promotions at the Altenew Promotions page!  Click on the graphic below.

Affiliate Links may be used at no additional cost to you.

Altenew Antique Gold Crisp Embossing Powder Shop at: SSS | ALT	Altenew Beautiful Heart Die Set Shop at: SSS | ALT	Altenew Beautiful Heart Stamp & Die Bundle Shop at: ALT	Altenew Beautiful Heart Stamp Set Shop at: SSS | ALT	Altenew Floral Art Die Set Shop at: SSS | ALT
Altenew Floral Art Stamp & Die Bundle Shop at: ALT	Altenew Floral Art Stamp Set Shop at: SSS | ALT	Fabriano Artistico Extra White Cold Pressed #140 Paper ( 5 x 7 Block of 25 sheets) Shop at: SSS	Kokuyo Long Dot Adhesive Shop at: SSS