Hello, hey! I’m so glad you’re here! Altenew is releasing their April line of stamps, dies, stencils and more and we’re doing a blog hop to share the inspiration! If you’ve arrived here from Emily’s blog, you’re just where you should be, and if not, then you can click back to the start of the hop at the Altenew card blog and not miss a thing!
I worked with several of the products being released this month and especially loved this stamp set! The Statement Flowers Stamp Set fulfills the promise in the name and stamps beautiful statement florals for your cards.
For this card I did one of my favorite techniques to keep a watercolor painted card light and airy looking. I achieved this by stamping with embossing ink and heat setting with white embossing powder! I painted in each of the sections using the Altenew 36 watercolor paint palette, then added more color to the background of the image, making the embossed outlines pop!
For the facing flower on the bottom I painted minimal spots of dark red and pink around the shaded lines at the base of each petal then washed the color out toward the tip of the petals with my brush loaded with a dilute golden yellow paint. Then the watercolor paint does what it does best and blends naturally and beautifully!
Often in nature, flowers on the same stalk or in the same garden will not be exactly the same shade so for the side facing bloom on top, I painted it the same as the first flower, but then after the paint was dry, I washed over the whole flower with a pale violet (diluted) tint. The effect looks more natural and adds more depth, pushing it to the background of the two flowers.
The leaves are painted with mixes of bright green, olive, yellow and a touch of the same violet that I used on the second flower. I stamped the sentiment from the Statement Flowers stamp set and heat embossed with gold embossing powder.
One of the exciting new products being released today is a variety of sequins! They come in the sweetest little glass vials, in shades of Satin Gold, Antique Gold and Satin White, and each contains three different sizes of sequins. I used the Satin White sequins on this card and glued the smallest ones around the crown of the flower center to look….like something I can’t remember the name of….that looks vaguely botanical. You know what I mean, don’t you? I knew you would! Then I added a few more larger ones to embellish the whole card.
For my second card, I used the Sweet Spring Stencil from this release and the Classy Stripes Stencil from an older release. The Sweet Spring Stencil is a two part stencil, meant to add one color on the base and a more intense shade for the details.
I used the Evening Gray crisp dye ink for the larger base image and Moon Rock ink for the detail layer. Both are from the Warm Gray ink set. I ink blended the colors onto white cardstock then used fine tipped precision scissors to fussy cut the floral outline.
Next, I stenciled the front of a folded card base with the Evening Gray ink and the Classy Stripes Stencil. I tried to blend the color darker at the top and lighter near the bottom, although it’s difficult to see in the photos. I heat set the ink and liberally used an anti-static powder bag to prep the card front so I could stamp the sentiment (from the Just Jasmine stamp set) and heat emboss with platinum embossing powder without getting it stuck to the colored stripes as well.
I popped up the fussy cut stenciled design with foam tape on the back and added a few of the Antique Gold sequins to finish the card.
My next card is super basic, although it was time consuming because this is not a two-part stencil! I actually masked off all the blooms of the Floral Wallpaper Stencil before inking the leaves and stems, and then vice versa, masking the stems and leaves and inking the flowers! I didn’t mind though. I just turned on an audio book and enjoyed the process! I only wish I’d done multiple card panels in a variety of colors while the masking was in place!
I used Coral Berry with a touch of Ruby Red for the tulip tops and Fresh Leaf ink and Moss ink for the leaves and stems.
Then I cropped a 1/2″ strip out of the card panel and temporarily adhered the two pieces to my card front. Using the opening as a guide, I positioned my sentiment from the new Sentiment Strips 2 Stamp Set, stamped it with embossing ink and heat set with white embossing powder. I added a narrow strip of pink cardstock behind the top opening edge and popped up the top and bottom pieces with lots of foam tape.
I added three little enamel dots to the card front to complete the card and let it be complete like that!
My final card for today is a cheerful little number in sherbetty shades, done using the Piles of Presents Mask Stencil and the Piles of Presents Stamp Set.
The Piles of Presents Stencil is not typical to other Altenew stencils in that it isn’t a singular pattern, but rather is a variety of 6 sized squares or rectangles that you can position as you like. You could use the included masks for each of the shapes to create an overlapped stack of presents, but for this card I kept it simple and ink blended an all over pattern of my own design.
Using the same inks for blending and then stamping, I combined the blended stencil shapes with the coordinating patterns in the stamp set. Then I added the black ribbons and finally the bows. There are 7 different bow choices to add to the presents in any configuration you like!
Finally, I stamped the sentiment from the Piles of Presents stamp set, onto black cardstock and heat set with white embossing powder, then cut into a narrow strip and adhered to the card front. I chose a neutral but matching green shade of cardstock to mat the stenciled and stamped card panel so that the card could work for either gender.
That’s it for me today! Off you hop now to Laura Volpes’s blog for more inspiration! Before you go though, there are prizes. To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 6 lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or Altenew Mixed Media Blog by April 23, 2020 for a chance to win.
We’ll also draw a winner to receive a $20 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 blogs on April 26, 2020.
Below you will find the complete blog hop list in case of any broken links along the way. Thanks so much for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the hop!
Norine Borys – You are here.
