Altenew's All About Layering Class

Hello there!  I am back today with another project to share with you for the Altenew Educator Certification Program.  This time the class was "All About Layering" and I did happen to take this class once before.  As I mentioned in my last post, I always enjoy a look back because it seems I pick up something new each time I watch it.  I remember when I got some of my very first Altenew Layering Stamps, I had sent a note to customer service that I couldn't seem to get things lined up correctly.  They referred me to the All About Layering and All About Layering II Classes (which are FREE) and that was actually when I started being able to use the layering stamps and getting them lined up correctly. It was definitely a game changer in my card making. 

In this class we learned about these sets:

Golden Garden

Scribbled Flowers

Whimsical Flowers

Painted Flowers

Painted Poppy

Layered Lily

Vintage Flowers

Vintage Roses

Watercolor Wonders

Painted Butterflies

For my project to share with all of you, I chose one of my favorite sets, Painted Butterflies.  This particular stamp set doesn't line up exactly with the previous layer making it a bit tricky if you haven't seen the video.  They definitely have a more organic feel to the finished product.  There's nothing like it and I love the very artsy feel of this set. 

I wanted to use a family and shade of ink that matched my cardstock piece so I usually lightly swipe the corner of an ink cube on plain printer paper to see what color I think matches.  I usually have it narrowed down to one or two color families and then one shade within that family.  I found a perfect match to my colored cardstock in the color Aqualicious.  I heard that Tasnim picks all the names for the ink colors and she does such a great job!  Also, she is right - Aqualicious is a truly delicious color!  

Recently, I got the Altenew Creative Edges Die in Lace.  I had a A2 sized scrap of aqua cardstock in my scrap bin and I wanted to try out the die in a color with a white card base.  I just lined up the lacy edge of the die first on the on the top and then on the bottom of the aqua cardstock panel to give the lacy looking center panel. 

I chose a sentiment from my first stamp set collaboration that I did with Tasnim for Altenew which released in February of this year.  It is "Wings of Hope" and was geared toward being an encouragement sentiment set.  Tasnim did all of the illustrations for this set while I did the sentiments.  

Using two of the inks from the Sweet Dreams Mini Cube Set, I stamped the butterflies using Aqualicious Crisp Dye Ink for the base layer.  I added the detail layer using Galactic Stream and finally I stamped the loose outline image using Versamark with Antique Gold Embossing Powder to match the sentiment I had stamped using the same products.

I really love how this card turned out and that it used a favorite color with one of my favorite stamp sets, "Painted Butterflies".  The quote is also a favorite from "Wings of Hope".  If you don't feel very comfortable using layered stamping, I would encourage you to sign up for the "All About Layers" classes at Altenew Academy.  Remember, those two classes are free so you need only create an account, put them in your cart and check out.  You total will come to $0.00.

Didn't this card just turn out so pretty?  I love it.  I've included the links to the Altenew Store and Altenew Academy All About Layering Classes here and here (respectively) for your convenience.  Thank you so much for stopping by today to check out my project.  I hope you'll come back soon or consider subscribing to my blog.  Have a wonderful day! 

The Paper Players Challenge #345

Hello everyone!  I have a quick card for The Paper Players Challenge this week. We are to create a Clean & Simple Card that has Butterflies on it.  If you've been here before, you know that I have butterflies so it was easy to decide that I'd participate. The ones I used for my card today are a set a got a while back but had not used before so I thought it was high time to ink them up.

Recently, Altenew offered their Painted Butterflies Stamp Set and Coordinating Dies for a special price that was approximately a 25% discount, so I got this set that I'd been wanting for a while. There are 29 individual stamps included in this 6 x 8 stamp set and some of them are sentiments.

The style of this set is looser than most of the styles I have, so there's not perfect way to stamp them.  The outline does not match up to the inside layers so it's a much more organic feel to these beauties.  A layering guide is available for download or just for reference at the link provided.

For my butterflies, I began by die cutting them from white cardstock - One of the larger ones and a couple of the smaller ones.  Then I popped them back into the negative for stamping.  I prefer to stamp the most solid image first and then the outline.  I used Altenew's Lagoon Crisp Dye Ink for that and then stamped the outline using Altenew's Jet Black Crisp Dye Ink.  Once that part was done, I misted them with some Sheer Sparkle Shimmer Spritz and set them aside to dry for a few minutes while I did some ink blending on the background panel.  I used Papertrey Ink's Aqua Mist Ink with a Mini Round Ink Blending Tool and more of the shimmer spritz.  When that was dry, I die cut the panel with the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die, and cut a mat using the largest die from the WPLUS9 Gift Card Layers Die Set out of  Hawaiian Shores Cardstock.  I attached those to a top folding card base made from Stamper's Select White Cardstock using the Kokuyu Dotliner Adhesive.  I stamped my greeting from the Hero Arts Hello Stamp & Cut Set in Versamark and heat set it using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.

After that I could add the butterflies with some foam tape and I also added three little crystals (I buy Swarovski when they are half off at Hobby Lobby) so I can participate in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, "A Bit of Sparkle".

I hope you'll be able to join in on the fun at The Paper Players this week!  I love seeing how other people interpret the challenges.  I hope you'll leave me a comment so I can check out your blog as well.  Thank you so much for stopping by.