Hello friends, and welcome to the Altenew January product release blog hop! It’s another big one this month and there are so many beautiful projects to be inspired by! You should be arriving here from Tina’s blog, but if not, please click back to the beginning of the hop at the Altenew Card Blog so you don’t miss anything.
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To begin, I have two very different (from each other) cards featuring the Vintage Garden stamp, die and stencil set. And, if you scroll down, you’ll see I have two additional cards made with the All Things A stamp and die set.
My first card is stamped on Neenah smooth cardstock with Permanent Black ink, then the darker, shaded portions of the petals and leaves are added with the stencil and the large blending tool. It’s a very striking (and easy) way to add some color to the stamped outline image and it’s also great to have a stamped out line image in the set for other coloring techniques.
On this card, I combine two separate stamp images, using first, the bloom and smaller leaves. Then I tucked the leaves-only image as close to the edge of the flower petals as I could get to make them appear to also be tucked behind.
Once the first layer of color was applied with the blending tool, I added a lighter shade all over, by fussing cutting a stamped “stencil” from masking paper that included the whole of the bloom, then the leaves alone, and finally the additional set of leaves. That left me with an opening to ink blend the whole shape of the flower and leaves, covering the first layer of stenciled color and the center of the flower with deeper color (longer and more pressure from the blending tool) and leaving the edges and petal tips lighter. I repeated this for the leaves.
For the flower bloom I ink blended the shadows with Crimson ink and blended the whole shape with Pink Pearl ink. For the leaves, I used Moss ink for the darker shades and Frayed Leaf for the lighter shade.
I stamped a greeting using one of the sentiment stamps in the set, then used the three leaf die to partially die cut the bottom of the card panel. I finessed the bottom tip of the smaller leaf with a sharp Xacto knife and a straight edge.
I layered the stamped and inked card panel over top of two color coordinated patterned papers and added a defining black line at the top and bottom of the stamped panel using an Altenew liner pen.
The second card I made using the Vintage Garden stamp set, is an elegant combination of gold embossed background with a beautiful shade of gray cardstock and a greeting die cut from mirror gold cardstock.
I placed the cardstock panel in the MISTI and positioned all of the separate images in the set in a way that completely covered the card panel. I did it in stages so that I could use strong magnets in the MISTI to keep the card panel from shifting while I stamped and restamped with embossing ink, then heat set with Gold embossing powder.
The cardstock I used from my stash is textured so it presented something of a challenge to get a smooth impression for embossing, but I find I rather like the “broken” stitch-y lines.
I die cut the word “hello” from Mirror Gold cardstock, using the Hello & Hugs die set, then the background die cut from a darker shade grey cardstock than I used for the stamped card panel. I made a sentiment strip with the same darker cardstock using the Sentiment Strips 2 stamp set and Obsidian Black ink heat set with clear embossing powder. I trimmed the card panel slightly smaller and adhered it to a Classic Crest Solar White card base to help it really pop.
Next up are two cards made with the All Things A stamp and die set. All of the sentiments in the stamp set focus on a word that starts with A – such as I ADMIRE you.
The first card is stamped onto Classic Crest white cardstock with Obsidian Black ink and heat set with clear embossing powder. I colored the chunky A letter with various Altenew Artist Marker pens, and die cut the finished colored letter with the coordinating die set.
I stamped a sentiment from the “A” stamp set onto black cardstock with white embossing powder. Then I adhered both the colored die cut, and the sentiment strip onto some black and white striped patterned paper from the Essential Black & White paper pack.
The next card is similar insofar as the letter A is again stamped with Obsidian black ink onto Classic Crest cardstock and heat set with clear embossing powder.
I used the large ink blending tools to blend a rainbow color blend on both the letter and separately, on the card panel. I used Crimson and Cotton Candy, Warm Sunshine, Olive, Turquoise and finally, Lavender Fields to blend with.
I could have simply stamped and heat embossed the letter on an A2 card panel and done the rainbow ink blend over the whole card, letter and background alike, but I wanted the “A” to stand out a little more, so I ink blended it separately from the card panel, but in identical order then die cut the letter and layered it over top the background in a way to make it seem like it almost matches!
The sentiment strip that runs alongside the right hand leg of the “A” is stamped and heat embossed like the A. Finally, a narrow strip of paper from the Essential Black & White patterned paper pack, grounds and finishes the card. The panel is trimmed narrower on each side, and adhered to a white cardstock card base.
Altenew is offering a free gift promotion to help celebrate this release! Here are THREE ways to get a FREEBIE to kickstart your creativity!
- Get a FREE brand new Fresh Start Stamp & Die Release Inspiration Guide (worth $5.99) with every order of high-value Fresh Start release bundles. Shop HERE! *Exclusions apply.
- Get a FREE brand new online cardmaking class with every order from the new Fresh Start Stamp & Die Release collection from 01/05/2021 through 01/11/2021. Shop HERE!
- Get a FREE brand new Fresh Start Stamp & Die Release Mini Inspiration Guide with every order from 01/05/2021 through 01/07/2021. Shop HERE!
As always, there are Giveaway Prizes! $300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 2 lucky winners and a $20 gift certificate to 10 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 01/11/2021 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 12 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 01/13/2021.
Your next stop on the hop is Zsoka Marko’s blog. Should you encounter a broken link anywhere on the hop, please refer back to the complete Hop List just below.
Fresh Start Blog Hop List:
Tina Smith
Norine Borys – You are here.
Thanks so much for visiting today and enjoy the rest of the hop!
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