Hello, hi! I have a post up on the Altenew Card Blog today, showcasing the newly released Better Together 2 stamp set, a second set of sentiments that uplift, encourage, and promote acceptance, unity and diversity.
Besides the color scheme and the sentiment stamp set, these four cards are unified by a few other products and techniques. Each card utilizes a stencil for ink blending as well as impressing the stencil shape by running it through a die cutting machine, plus additional layers of stamping and some water-ink-smooshing.
For the first card, I used the Castle Motifs Stencil to ink blend and then impress the image, then added some random stamping with the Pinstripe stamp and the Dainty Swiss Dots stamp. I spritzed the watercolor cardstock with water to allow the ink to bleed, spread and soften the edges of the designs.
I stamped the sentiment from the Better Together 2 stamp set onto a coordinating shade of colored cardstock in my stash bin, and heat embossed with gold embossing powder. Then I trimmed it down and bordered it with some gold mirror cardstock and embellished the card with a couple of die cut leaves from the Leaf Mix die set and a large gold rhinestone.
Card #2 uses the Elegant Swirls stencil, with some stamping using the Shine Like a Diamond stamp. In each case, where the stamping doesn’t cover the whole card, I tapped the ink pad onto the stamp and to avoid ink pad edges from showing up, I softened the edges with the mini Ink Blending Tool before stamping down.
I stamped the sentiment directly onto the stenciled card panel and heat embossed with Platinum embossing powder, but when I realized that it got a little bit lost in the design, I had to come up with a way to make it stand out better. I tried stamping on a piece of plain cardstock and placing it over the stamped sentiment but it looked awkward, so then I used the Apothecary Labels Dies to die cut the sentiment and pop it up over another die cut fun foam label layer. Three narrow strips of coordinating colored cardstock behind help it to pop even more.
For this card, I started by ink blending with the Leaves and Berries stencil, then stamping a little with the Pinstripes stamp. When I spritzed the inked paper I really liked how the color moved and puddled and decided to add more, but smooshing a few different ink pads onto a smooth acrylic palette, adding water and flicking it onto the design to produce wet puddles of color. Then I used a heat gun to speed the drying and to achieve the outlines of color around some of the ink splatters.
This time I paired the inked panel with a solid cardstock panel, where I stamped another of the sentiments in the Better Together 2 stamp set. I added narrow strips of dark blue cardstock on top and bottom and embellished with more leaves die cut using the Leaf Mix Die set. One leaf is cut from gold mirror cardstock and the other is plain white cardstock ink blended to match the card. I found the gold puffy heart in my stash and decided today was the day I would use it! No more hoarding of that particular item!
The last card is made using the Trellis Stencil and a combination of the Shine Like a Diamond stamp and the Leaf Clusters stamp set.
It was really hard to cover any of this pretty card panel, but I did it anyway, sort of. I stamped the sentiment onto vellum paper and heat embossed with gold embossing powder, then framed the vellum to fit one of the skinny frames that come out of the Fine Frames Cover Die. I used more gold mirror cardstock for the frame and finished the card with some gold sequins in my stash.
Thanks so much for stopping by today! You can click over to the Altenew Card Blog where these cards are posted with more photos and how-to details. Have a totally awesome day!
