Altenew December 2018 Inspiration Challenge - Year in Review

Hello there!  I am here today with a post that will be just getting in under the wire for the Altenew December 2018 Inspiration Challenge.  I think I have until Midnight Eastern time to get this uploaded to their gallery.  As you might know, I've been working to get my Altenew Educator Certification Programs completed and so I wanted to end the year with a card made from Altenew products using several of the techniques that I've focused on during the classes.

When I started working on this card today, I selected a completely different stamp set that I was planning to use - Floral Flurries stamps and dies with some leaves from Beautiful Heart and Frosted Garden thrown in there too.  I had everything stamped and die cut ready for my card, so I wanted to add some texture and color to my background panel.  I also wanted to create a larger 5 x 7 card with lots of gentle spring colors as I've been working on Christmas Cards pretty much non-stop except for my Altenew class projects this past month.

One of the things I most like about Altenew is that you can mix elements from other sets to get a truly unique look.  It was with this thought in mind that I had stamped my original elements.  I also wanted to add some interest to the background so I used a larger embossing folder that I had in my supplies but had never used.  I tried to find the name of this one, but I couldn't find it and I'm thinking it might have come as a freebie with my Gemini Die Cutting Machine.  Using a piece of 5 x 7 Neenah Solar White cardstock, I ran it through my Cuttlebug to emboss the paper.  It took a little figuring out because this embossing folder is a bit thicker than most so you just have to figure out what works for your machine.  Once I embossed it, I wanted to add some soft colors to the background along with some gold watercolor splatter.  To do this, I grabbed a piece of scratch paper and some soft stenciling brushes and went around the outside edges with Frosty Pink and then some Harvest Gold (PTI) on the center and kind of blended it out.  The supplies I used today are all nearly all from Altenew except for that little touch of Harvest Gold Ink, the adhesives and the Finetec Gold Watercolor on the background. I didn't feel like I had a good choice in my Altenew inks, as I only have one set of the Yellow color family cubes and none of them worked very well with the Frosty Pink. 

I really loved how this turned out, so I went ahead and grabbed my Finetec Mica Gold Watercolors and spritzed the Inca Gold with a little water.  I used a #2 script brush to create the spatter which has longer fibers than other brushes and makes a very fine splatter.  I'm not very patient, so I used my heat tool to assist in drying the splatter from the back side.

Thinking I was finished with this background and ready to assemble my card, I grabbed all the elements and started arranging them on my background panel.  I realized immediately, that my stamped elements were all wrong for this background.  I loved the way the background looked so much, that I grabbed a different stamp set and started my bouquet all over again.  This time I chose Perfectly Perfect and heat embossed the images with Altnew's Rose Gold Embossing Powder onto Canson Bristol Cardstock.  I used a wet on wet technique for the flowers with Frosty Pink and Coral Berry Re-inkers.  I have one of the little flower shaped porcelain dishes that I add a spritz of water to with a drop of color from the reinker to get a light wash of color.  I used a lot of water not being particularly careful to stay in the lines although it seems like I did okay.  For the leaves, I used Forest Glades Re-inker.

Once everything was completely dry, I die cut everything.  I always stamp and cut extras of the leaves as that's what I seem to need more of.  In addition to the elements from Perfectly Perfect, I stamped and Rose Gold Heat Embossed one of the elements from Wings of Hope that I could use as a sprig of something to use as a filler in my arrangement.

When I started laying out my arrangement, I chose a sentiment from the Sentiments & Quotes Stamp set that I love.  I used a combination of Ranger Multi Medium Matte, Scotch 3-D Foam Tape, Scrapbook adhesives 3-D Foam Squares, and Thin 3-D Foam Squares.  I mounted the background panel on Scotch 3-D Foam Tape but it probably would have been easier to use a piece of fun foam.  I just didn't want to stop what I was doing to go get a piece.

I love how this card turned out and I wish I had time to make cards like this every single day.  This is so very much my personal style and I love it.  I hope the Altenew Team enjoys it as well as it is one of my all time favorites!

Altenew Educator & A Tribute Post for Melissa Dawn Lane

Today's card has special significance for me.  I found out on Friday that Melissa Dawn Lane of Honey Bee Lane (not to be confused with Honey Bee Stamps) passed away unexpectedly on October 2nd, leaving her husband and four children to cope with the enormous loss.  Melissa was a part of the Stamplorations Design Team as well as being on other Challenge design teams in the industry.  She was kind and encouraging to everyone in the industry and outside of that as well.  Melissa loved Butterflies and often featured them in the cards she made.  Stamplorations has a tribute page here for Melissa where you can submit a project in her honor between now and October 31st.  The page will remain as a tribute to her, but the linky and the mailing address will be removed. 

I was a fan of Melissa's work because she frequently joined in the challenges at the Simon Says Stamp Blog where I join in as often as possible.  Her style was pretty clean and simple.  Melissa was also an avid photographer and you can see a lot of her photography on her Instagram accounts here:  https://www.instagram.com/honeybeelanecards/ and here for a peek into her home life: https://www.instagram.com/mainepromisedlandfarm/.

My post today is also for the Altenew Educator Certification Program, "Color Your Day" class.  For a few months, I have had these butterflies sitting on my desk in my "to use" group.  I can think of no better occasion than to make a beautiful card for Melissa's family.  I hope the butterflies that Melissa so loved will make them smile.

I stamped several of the butterflies from the SSS Beautiful Day Stamp Set in Versamark on a sheet of 5 x 7 Fabriano Artistico Extra White Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper and heat set them with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  I'm pretty sure this Fabriano paper is going to become a favorite for watercolor even though I didn't do any traditional watercoloring on it.  I chose to use an analogous color scheme but in this class, we learned about using a color wheel for Analogous, Complimentary and even Triad color schemes.  I have another family in color schemes that I call Duochrome.  "Duotone" is a type of photographic image that was very popular in the days before color film was so easily accessible by photographers of all levels. It includes black and white and sepia toned prints.  In cardmaking, I like to use this technique with a metallic and 1 additional color.  I have an example of this technique coming up on the 25th of this month.

I used Daniel Smith Watercolors but I wanted a very pigmented color so there's not much water mixed in with it.  For the Purple color, I mixed Quinacridone Purple with Quinacridone Pink.  For the turquoise color, I mixed Ultramarine Turquoise with Phthalo Blue.  I used two shades for the Leaves, Deep Sap Green and the same color mixed with a bit of Aureolin for the lighter green shade.

Since my husband is only home on the weekends, I spend a lot of my weekend time with him and once I finished coloring in the butterflies, I let the images dry overnight and then hit them with a bit of shimmer mist this morning.

I had a background that I had made during the AECP "Irresistible Inking Techniques" class that I wanted to use for the background so I die cut that panel and made a card base from Aqua Mist Cardstock.  I used a brayer with a watered down solution of ink to make the background.  I've linked that blog post for you. I like that it's a nice soft color with a very subtle texture.  For Easy Mailing, I kept the card fairly flat but I did use some thin foam tape under the butterflies to make them pop a little bit and added a bit of bling.

For the inside sentiment, I chose one from the "Wings of Hope" set that Tasnim and I collaborated on for Altenew.  It's a quote from Washington Irving and one I found myself recalling often after my brother's murder in 2014.  The year 2014 was a terrible year of loss for me personally.  There were several deaths of close friend's family members, a family member of my own, and I know that Melissa's family will have moments where they will struggle to hold back the tears.  I want to let them know that it's okay to cry.  It happens less often as the years pass, but sometimes there are still things that will bring them bubbling to the surface.

I hope you all were privileged enough to know Melissa through her paper crafting and card making.  Melissa, you will be missed!  I'm not including a link supply list for this post as I feel it would be in very poor taste, but I've named the products I used and you can find them easily if you'd like to.

I am sending lots of love and hugs to Melissa's family and friends at this tough time in their lives.  If you'd like to send a card to Melissa's family, you can send them to Shery Russ of Stamplorations at the address linked at the Stamplorations Blog before October 31st.  After that time, the address will be removed. 

Please add a butterfly stamp or die to the envelope so Shery will know it's for Melissa's family and she will send them on.

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! 

Color Throwdown #482

Hello!  I am popping in here with a quick post today for the Color Throwdown Challenge #482.  The featured colors this week are Pink, Kraft and Grey.  I was able to pull a card together very quickly for this with several items that were already stamped and laying on my desk.

I had previously stamped the sentiment from Altenew's Wings of Hope Stamp Set.  Since I helped design this set, I know all the sentiments by heart.

I started with the panel of Bristol Paper that had been embossed with Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  I die cut that panel with the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die.  I die cut the next panel from Papertrey's Soft Stone Cardstock which is a soft grey color for the mat and created a top folding horizontal card base from Papertrey's Classic Kraft Cardstock.

I had already stamped the tulips with Sweet Blush, Pale Peony and Berry Sorbet as well as the little butterfly in Sweet Blush.  All I need to do was arrange the flowers above the quote, add a few Nuvo Crystal Drops in Bubblegum Blush and this card was finished.  I did let the Nuvo Drops dry overnight.

We had a death in our family recently and although I sent a card, I plan to send this one as well.  It was a pretty big shock in some ways because this person had cancer but was recently given the all clear from his doctor -- just a few days before he died so it was unexpected at this time.  Anyhow, I didn't want to send the same card but I do want to let the family know we're thinking of them.

Altenew Wings of Hope Stamp Set Shop at: ALT	Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Shop at: SSS	Nuvo Crystal Drops Bubblegum Blush Shop at: SSS	PTI Classic Kraft Cardstock Shop at: PTI
PTI Perfect Match Berry Sorbet Ink Shop at: PTI	PTI Perfect Match Pale Peony Ink Shop at: PTI	PTI Perfect Match Sweet Blush Ink Shop at: PTI	PTI Soft Stone Cardstock Shop at: PTI
PTI Tulip Time Dies Shop at: PTI	PTI Tulip Time Stamp Set Shop at: PTI	Ranger Multi Medium Matte Shop at: SSS

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