Altenew Inspiration Challenge

This month's Inspiration Challenge at Altenew is called "Class of 2017" and we can choose any of the year's 11 other challenges as our inspiration.  I chose the August 2017 Inspiration for my card.  It has been a while since I have had a chance to participate in the Altenew Challenge although it is one of my favorites.  The fun part is that I can enter as many times as I like and I plan to enter a few more times before the month is over. I hope I will have time to do at least 1 other card.

I struggle sometimes with making a card using colors not found in nature and this is one of those cards.  I love the colors but you would not find this color in nature on this flower.  I'm not sure there are any flowers this color anywhere, but I know I haven't seen everything.  I just like using pretty colors when I am making a card for my Mother-In-Law and I try to send her different things than I have previously sent.  My Sisters-In-Law, Brenda and Vickie, say she really enjoys looking at them and having them read to her.

I chose this color in part because I wanted to play along in the Altenew Challenge this month and also because I wanted to make something with this gorgeous teal and gold foiled paper that I have. This came from one of the Craft Smith Paper Pads that I got at Michaels on a Black Friday Special.  The whole collection is very tropical and lush but I will always be drawn to anything that has an Art Deco feel to it.  I love Art Deco and I have really been enjoying watching the Property Brothers At Home doing the renovations on Drew and Linda's home. I chose this paper as my starting point but I also had Altenew Beautiful Day on my desk.  I have used this set so often that I had accidentally torn the two most used stamps in the collection trying to peel them off an acrylic block so I had recently ordered a replacement set (on a Cyber Monday Deal).  Because I love this set so much, I wanted to make sure I ordered a replacement set, so both were sitting on my desk waiting to be swapped out.  I used my old set one more time to do this card.  At some time, Altenew might decide to discontinue this set, but I don't see it happening anytime in the foreseeable future; it's just too popular.

I started by stamping the bloom outline and the leaf outline in Versamark and heat setting it with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  For all of the stamping on this card, I used the Altenew Sea Shore Ink Collection which are all of these beautiful shades of teal; Mountain Mist, Volcano Lake, Lagoon and Emerald.  These are available in the larger ink pads, but I have all of my Altenew Inks in Cubes.

I love the whole ink cube idea because it allows me to choose more than one brand of ink for my projects and also because the RA makes it difficult to hold on to the larger pads. Each brand and type of ink performs differently so you just have to know what you expect as far as performance and try one or two of them before you buy a whole set.  I tried a couple of the pink and red families of colors before I got more.  I love the colors and they are different than the other brands I have.  Plus the cubes come in collections that are already color coordinated for you for any layering images you might be stamping.  In this case, I did not have to do any double or triple stamping to get the color I wanted.  Just a single stamping although I did use the MISTI just in case. Because this set is so well loved, the ink sticks to the photo-polymer very well.  I'll have to break in a new set of stamps now but I'm glad to have a replacement set.  Thankfully, I hadn't messed up any of the dies.  You can also purchase the Beautiful Day Stamp & Die Bundle in the Altenew Shop which gives you a bit of a discount as of the writing of this post.

In Erum's beautiful card, she didn't say what ink colors she used and for my card I took a lot of liberties with the golden chartreuse color and just made mine gold.  I did not use any brown but we are to use the image as a starting point and go from there.  We don't need to copy it exactly.  I always find Erum's work just incredibly beautiful.

Thank you so much for coming by today to see my card.  I hope I've inspired you to think outside of the box a bit and try an unusual color scheme on a project of your own.  I linked the supplies I've used below for your convenience.

Stamper's Select White Cardstock Shop at: PTI	Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder Shop at: SSS	Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Shop at: SSS	Versamark Ink Shop at: PTI | SSS
Wagner Heat Tool Shop at: SSS	Ranger Multi Medium Matte Shop at: SSS	Teflon Bone Folder Shop at: SSS	Altenew Sea Shore Ink Cube Collection Shop at: SSS | ALT
Altenew Beautiful Day Shop at: SSS | ALT	Altenew Beautiful Day Dies Shop at: SSS | ALT

Altenew June 2016 Inspiration Challenge

When I saw the inspiration photo for the Altenew Blog Challenge this month, I knew I wanted to participate. The colors of the inspiration photo are so fresh and crisp, yet soft and delicate from the muted tones of the eucalyptus to the soft creamy roses to the white ranunculus and the sparkle and shine of the wedding dress.  The photo happens to be one of the design team's images from her wedding.

To get the soft yellow blooms, I stamped the outline layer and then layer two of Altenew Beautiful Day Stamp Set onto Rustic White Cardstock using Lemon Tart Ink from Papertrey.  I love how the color just softens into this delicate butter color as it dries. Once the ink was dry, I stamped the outlines again using Versamark and heat embossed them with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder. Additionally I stamped and heat embossed the leaf outlines onto Stamper's Select 44# Vellum and SU! Wild Wasabi Cardstock then die cut everything with the Beautiful Day Coordinating Dies.  I used a Spellbinders Oval Floral to cut a frame from gold metallic poster board.  I die cut a large stitched rectangle from Vintage Jadeite Cardstock and then assembled the elements together around the frame.

The Beautiful Day Blooms always remind me of wild roses so they were a natural choice for this challenge.  Once I had everything adhered, I attached that to an A2 card base made from Rustic White Cardstock by Papertrey Ink.  I recently got a small pack of this paper to try and I really like it. It has little speckles in it and would be great for masculine cards.  I've seen some of the Altenew Spicy Yogurt Cardstock in photographs and I would love to try that also. It has lots of flecks in it. It would work great a neutral for me so I plan to try it in the not too distant future.

For the sentiment, I used one of the ones included in the Beautiful Day Stamp Set and think it's perfect for a wedding or just for a friend that you want to send some encouragement to.  I stamped it onto a strip of vellum and then laid the vellum across the stitched rectangle die to put the stitch marks on each side of it. I used a combination of adhesives for this card including Ranger Multi Medium Matte, Foam Squares and Sookwang Paper Tape.  I have to say, I am getting to be a big fan of the Sookwang Tape (a.k.a. Scor-Tape) as it's not really visible under vellum.  It's also easy because you can tear it instead of having to cut it. I finished the card by adding a few sequins in Crystal and Gold from Darice.

I think this is the first time I have created a card specifically for the Altenew Monthly Challenge although they always have beautiful inspiration images.  This set is my favorite of all the Altenew stamp sets I own.  There are a few on my wish list and there's one I have dies for, but not the stamps. I'm sure some of my crafty friends can relate to that predicament. *Ü*  Thank you so much for stopping by to see my project.  I hope you'll come again soon!

A Little Bit of Distress

Over at The Card Concept this week, they have a beautiful inspiration image with some Lilacs sitting in a container.  Since purple is a favorite color for me, I had to sit down and see what I could come up with.

There's a similar Challenge over at Muse Challenges #164 with the inspiration image in the upper right side of this post.

The first thing I did was to look through my stamps to see what I had that could look a little like Lilacs and this was the best I could come up. We can be inspired by what the item is, the colors or any number of things. It's actually not too bad. These flowering branches are from the Altenew Beautiful Day Stamp Set.  I cut the branches out with the Beautiful Day Coordinating Dies after water coloring the images.  

I started with a 4.25 x 5.5 inch piece of watercolor paper and stamped my images in Versamark then heat embossed using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder. I love the little bit warmer tone of this powder.  It is identical in final appearance to WOW!'s Gold Rich Pale Embossing Powder.  To watercolor the branches I used Wilted Violet Distress Marker for the taller skinny ones and Seedless Preserves Distress Marker for the shorter, squattier branches then finished them off using Pine Needles Distress Marker for the leaves.

I also dry embossed a piece of white cardstock using the Birds and Swirls Embossing folder from Cuttlebug. I opted to ink this up using the DTP methods with Perfect Match Lavender Moon Ink by Papertrey Ink. The raised areas catch significantly more ink although some does get down in the lower areas as well. If you choose a design that is closer together more of the ink stays on just the raised portions better leaving more white space in the design. After that I misted it with Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist and set it aside to dry. The kind I have is Tattered Angels but you could use the Tsukineko Gold Shimmer Spritz to get a simlar effect. Once it was dry I cut it with a Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die in the largest size to be my background panel.

I cut a piece of SU! Rich Razzleberry paper from a scrap out of my folder for the smaller oval and a larger one from gold poster board.  I cut the center out of the larger oval since I was going to cover it up and used it to cut my "smile" word die. This word was a set of three made by Little Yellow Bicycle and I got it about a year ago at Hobby Lobby along with another set of three words. The ovals were adhered to the background panel with Tombow Mono Adhesive.  Then I arranged the floral branches how I wanted them and adhered with Ranger Multi Medium Matte and added the greeting.  Everything was attached to a top folding A2 card base made from Stamper's Select White by Papertrey Ink.  

I have to say, as much as I like the occasional soft pink color, it does not photograph very well. You really can't see the shimmer and shine I added but if I try to take the card apart and put it on a different color card base, it will tear. So, for today, I can live with it. Be sure to stop by The Card Concept and Muse to check out all the gorgeous creations there.  Thank you for taking time to stop and read my blog today.  I really enjoy reading all of the comments if you'd like to leave one for me. I'll be back soon with a new project.  Have a great weekend, everyone! *Ü*