Altenew February 2018 Inspiration Challenge

Hello everyone!  I have been very busy with everything involved in building a house and also making a lot of trips back and forth, sometimes down and back in the same day which is a 7 hour round trip.  I'm just not that fond of riding in the car and I will be quite happy when we get settled and I don't have to make those long drives anymore.  It will be worth it in the end but it is definitely keeping me hopping.

I wanted to create at least one card for the Altenew February 2018 Inspiration Challenge, so today I have two cards featuring Altenew Ornamental Flower Stamps and Dies.  These are available in the Altenew Store individually or in a bundle and will be linked at the end of this post in my supply list.

I started with a 4.25 x 5.5 inch piece of Stamper's Select White Cardstock and the most solid image from the stamp set.  I wanted to do two different colors so I just rotated my cardstock in the MISTI 180 degrees after I stamped each layer. This works really well, for me at least. For the first card and bloom I used the new Tea Party Collection of Inks.  I've seen several of the floral images done in multiple color families and while I like that, I don't think it is really my style so I just used one family for each bloom.  For the second card and flower, I used the Rose Petal Collection of inks.  For both cards, I used Green Fields Ink Collection for the foliage.  Once I got the first three layers of the blooms and the leaves stamped, I let them dry for a while and then for the detail layer I stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with Antique Gold Embossing Powder. You know if there's a way to add gold to my projects, I will do it. I was pretty excited to realize that the detail layer for this set would work. This flower has a total of  11 stamps to get all of the details in there. Typically I choose stamps that have an outline layer for adding the gold, but this worked perfect. Each style of leaves is three layers so they turn out fantastic as well.

For the first card, I really wanted to keep a lot of white space, so scored a panel of 4.25 x 5.5 inch piece of cardstock, then die cut it with a stitched rectangle and went back over all the score lines with my Teflon bone folder as it seemed like they flatted out a bit when I die cut the panel.  It only took a minute and I wanted to be sure the score lines were visible.  I popped that up on some fun foam using score tape as tape runner will not work with the foam.  I created my arrangement on my desktop and then cover it with Press N Seal, then picked it up and started applying thin 3D foam Squares on the back side of the blooms.  Then I flipped the whole thing over, positioned it how I wanted and then laid it down and pressed everything in place.  I needed to go back in a couple of places to tuck in another little foam square but my little tweezers worked great for that.  The sentiment is a favorite from Altenew Beautiful Day that I use often.  For the finishing touch, I added some Sparkling Clear Confetti to accent the bouquet.  Everything was adhered to a top folding card base made from Stamper's Select White.

For the next card, I wanted to use colors that reminded me of the inspiration photo so I used the Rose Petals Collection of Ink and put some little pearls on the center of the bloom.  The leaves were stamped in the Green Fields Ink Collection and everything has the detail layer heat embossed.

For the background of this card, I have this "Painted With Love" Designer Series Paper from Stampin' Up.  I got it recently after seeing a card made with it for another challenge that I participate in.  You know how much I love my pink and of course the gold foil! This is the one I will be entering over at the Altenew Inspiration Challenge. 

Altenew Antique Gold Crisp Embossing Powder Shop at: ALT	Altenew Beautiful Day Shop at: ALT	Altenew Green Fields Mini Cube Collection Shop at: ALT	Altenew Ornamental Flower Bundle Shop at: ALT
Altenew Ornamental Flower Dies Shop at: SSS | ALT	Altenew Ornamental Flower Stamp Set Shop at: SSS | ALT	Altenew Rose Petal Mini Cube Collection Shop at: ALT	Altenew Tea Party Collection Shop at: ALT
Cuttlebug Shop at: SSS	Scor-Tape - 1/2 inch Shop at: PTI | SSS	Scrapbook Adhesives Thin 3D Foam Squares Shop at: SSS	Teflon Bone Folder Shop at: SSS
Versamark Ink Shop at: PTI | SSS

Altenew January 2018 Inspiration Challenge

Hello!  I wanted to pop in for a few minutes with a card I made for the Altenew January 2018 Inspiration Challenge.  I tried to use some fun colors that are brighter than my usual style kind of card making.  It has been so cold across the nation this last couple of weeks and I wanted to try out this Altenew Totally Tropical Stamp Set with some bright vibrant colors to participate in the Altenew January 2018 Inspiration Challenge. 

I started by die cutting 3 of each bloom and six of each leaf from Stamper's Select White Cardstock. Then using the negatives as a placeholder with my Mini Misti, I was able to line my stamps up perfectly to stamp each of the flowers. These blooms are four layers but I only used three when stamping mine.  When the Totally Tropical Stamp Set came out a few months back, dies did not come out at the same time but before I ordered the floral I asked if dies would be coming and they said yes. Recently, I won a gift Certificate from Altenew so I got a background stamp I've been wanting and the coordinating dies for this set.  For the coral Bloom, I used Altenew's Coral Berry with Ruby Red, the light Pink bloom was Rubellite with Razzleberry, and the dark pink was PTI's Hibiscus Burst with Raspberry Fizz.

For the leaves I used Altenew Green Parrot with Olive.  Since I don't have any Altenew inks in the Yellow Family, I used PTI's Bright Buttercup for the centers of the Hibiscus blooms.  The Plumeria were stamped in PTI's Lemon Tart with Bright Buttercup and Altenew's Frosty Pink with Coral Berry.

While the ink was drying on the blooms, I went ahead and did the rest of my die cutting for the card.  I cut a panel of Gold Foil Cardstock for the background mat and a piece of Altenew Spicy Yogurt for the front panel.  I adhered the gold foiled panel to a top folding card base made from Stamper's Select White Cardstock and set that aside for a few minutes. I added lots of gold watercolor splatter to the Spicy Yogurt panel and let it dry while I tried to figure out the arrangement of my elements.

I gave the flowers each a quick spritz of Iridescent Gold Shimmer Mist and shaped each of the petals a little using my Teflon Bone Folder and started arranging the flowers and leaves. When I had the arrangement how I liked it, I used a piece of Press N Seal to pick the whole arrangement up and flipped it over so I could start adding adhesive to the back of the pieces. Before I flipped it back, I adhered the Spicy Yogurt Panel to the card base and then I added glue to the back of the floral arrangement. I like to use Ranger Multi Medium Matte for this. Then, still attached to the piece of press N Seal, I flipped it back over and pressed down for a few minutes to allow the glue to grab onto the cardstock panel. After a few minutes, I gently peeled back the Press N Seal a little at a time so that I could add any additional drops of glue where it was needed to keep the arrangement intact.  Once the arrangement was dry, I added little pearls to the centers of the flowers.

I die cut a banner and stamped the sentiment in Versamark then heat set it with Antique Gold Embossing Powder. I popped that up on a bit of foam tape. What a fun, tropical card this turned out to be!  The supplies I've used are linked below for your convenience.  Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Altenew Red Cosmos Ink Collection (Cubes) Shop at: ALT	Altenew Spicy Yogurt Cardstock Shop at: ALT	Altenew Totally Tropical Dies Shop at: ALT	Altenew Totally Tropical Stamp Set Shop at: ALT
Altenew Tropical Forest Cube Set Shop at: ALT	Altenew Tropical Forest Ovals Ink Pads Shop at: ALT	Cuttlebug Die Cutting Machine Shop at: SSS	Queen & Co White Pearls Shop at: SSS

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