Altenew Academy Level 1 Final Project

July 1, 2020 Karen Brown5 Comments

I\’ve been working my way through Level 1 at The Altenew Academy and just completed my Final Project which was to create a set of \”feminine\” and \”masculine\” gifts sets. I have to say I learned so much and had loads of ideas but I would like to show you the cards I created for my final project. I incorporated lessons I learned in:

Let It Shine where we discovered how to add just the right amount of sparkle and shine to a card. I used metallic heat embossing and metallic watercolors on my feminine cards.
Easy Die Cutting where we learned to use die-cutting to up the \”Wow\” factor. I used die-cuts on each of my cards as I think they add loads of impact and felt this unified both card sets.
Easy Ink Blending – I used several ink blending techniques on my masculine card set. My two favorites were the soft blue background on the Healing Wishes card and the die-cut spotlight circles on the Get Well Soon card.

For my \”feminine\” cards I wanted subtle metallic touches combined with watercoloring. I kept the set cohesive by using cream card stock/watercolor paper, floral images, a pink and green watercolor palette and navy die-cut sentiments.

For this first card, I created a metallic watercolor background which is so pretty in person. I then stamped, heat embossed and watercolored the floral images. After the flowers dried I added a pearlescent white gold watercolor wash over the top which gave the flowers a beautiful sheen. I die cut the images and attached with foam tape. The next photo shows the first three card in process.

Here are the cards that round out the gift set. On each card I used big bold die-cut occasion sentiments cut from navy cardstock.

I really like this feminine spray and think the navy die-cut sentiments are beautiful and anchor the look of this set.

The painted Lotus die-cut is so pretty in person.

I did want to share this process photo as well.

The Feminine Set

For my \”masculine\” cards I chose to use an overall blue theme with ink blending techniques and Altenew\’s Garden Grow as the unifying elements. For my first card, I ink blended a background and used peek-a-boo die cut windows to spotlight my images. During quarantine, I\’ve been sending so many encouragement cards that I wanted to include one in this set.

I made a companion card using the die-cut circles from the card above. I ink blended the spotlight circle, added die-cut images and anchored with a strip of masculine brown paper.

The next two cards have a soft ink blended background to draw the eye to the die cut.

I thought a birthday and recovery card would round out the gift set.

Here is an in-progress photo. The die cut elements were attached to each card with foam tape.

PRO TIP: I blended one background on Neenah (Birthday) and the second on Bristol (Healing Wishes) to see which provided a smoother look. The Neenah panel (below left panel that is now the Birthday Card) is whiter but the Bristol (right panel that is now the Healing Wishes card) is far easier to blend on and resulted in a smoother background. In the future, I will remember to blend my backgrounds on Bristol cardstock.

And here is the masculine set.

We were challenged to use a recycled element in each set. For the feminine set I recycled a small Kraft gift bag and for the masculine set I re-used an elegant chocolate brown box. I heat embossed some tags to top each set.

Altenew Products Used:

Altenew Weekend Doodles stamp and die bundle

Altenew Best Mom stamp and die bundle

Altenew Inked Lotus stamp and die bundle

Altenew Garden Grow stamp and die bundle

Altenew Mini Branch stamp

Altenew Jet Black Crisp Die Ink

I am so glad you stopped by. I\’d love to hear what you think about these card sets. Thanks!

Karen

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Altenew Academy: Easy Die Cutting

June 10, 2020 Karen Brown1 Comment

Hello and Welcome! I just finished the Altenew Academy class titled Easy Die Cutting. Yana Smakula was the instructor and she shared six wonderful lessons. I chose to write this blog post about lesson #5: Inlaid Die Cutting, which I found very inspirational. I just purchased this large beautiful scripty thank you die (Altenew\’s Simply Thank You) and thought it would work great with the inlaid die cutting technique. I learned to save all the pieces from both panels so you can can create two cards from the positive and negative die cutting. Don\’t you just love two-for-one projects! 🙂

$Inlaid Diecutting technique combined with Ink Blending featuring Altenew\'s Simply Thank You die.$

My Process:

I started by ink blending a bright colorful gradient on Bristol cardstock. I didn\’t want it to smear so I let it dry overnight. The next day I die cut the \”thank you\” from the inked panel. I also die cut the same sentiment from a white panel. Then I just swapped the sentiments and glued the white die-cut into the opening on the inked panel and glued the inked sentiment onto the white panel. I was careful to save all the die cut pieces so I could piece everything back together. Voila…two cards! Yana also loves embellishments so I felt encouraged to add buttercream jewels to the white background.

These cheerful cards will come in so handy on my next thank you notes.

I am so pleased that you stopped by!

Karen

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Altenew Academy – Irresistable Inking

June 7, 2020 Karen Brown2 Comments

Hello and welcome! I\’ve been working my way through Altenew Academy\’s Irresistible Inking class and I wanted to share this card. Sara Naumann is the instructor and she provided loads of inking details, tips and techniques to make cards more interesting. I used three of these techniques on my card. After watching all the videos, I was inspired to make a vintage look masculine card.

My Process:

I started by using the stamp block inking technique we learned in Class #3. I took a square acrylic block, inked it with Altenew Sand Dunes ink, spritzed with water and then stamped on a Bristol cardstock panel. Sand Dunes was a great ink to use because it looks vintage but it is light enough to color over. I was going for a rustic, uneven masculine effect.
I popped out to have a latte and once the panel was dry, I stamped the planter on the inked square and then colored with Zig markers.
I trimmed the panel down and then inked around the edges (lesson #4) of the square with the same Sand Dunes ink. This is very subtle but the inking frames the vignette and gives a little more definition to the card.
I also block stamped the Sand Dunes on a scrap of Bristol cardstock so the sentiment strip would coordinate with the square panel. I inked the edges of the sentiment strip and then heat embossed the sentiment.
I made a top folding A2 card out of Bristol cardstock and then used a small paint brush to make Sand Dunes splatters over the card base.
I adhered the square panel and sentiment to the card base with foam tape.

Supplies:

Altenew Garden Grow stamp set

Altenew Sand Dunes ink (background, edges and paint splatters)

Square Acrylic Block

#2 paint brush

Small Spray Mister

Bristol cardstock

Zig Markers (Deep Red, Wine Red, Pale Rose, Oatmeal, Dark Oatmeal, Olive, Mid Green, May Green and blender)

Versamark Ink (planter and sentiment)

clear embossing powder.

Foam Tape

I am also playing along with:

Sweet Stampin Masculine/Father\’s Day Challenge

With all the social distancing, I have been staying home a lot more than usual and these Altenew Academy classes have been the perfect activity for me to grow my card making skills.

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

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Altenew Academy: Celebration Stencil Techniques

June 4, 2020 Karen Brown4 Comments

Hello and welcome. I just finished a wonderful Altenew Academy course and I am excited to share my card with you. Laurel Beard taught us stencil techniques and I loved them all! This is my favorite card from the class. I also used my favorite Altenew stamp and die bundle called Weekend Doodles.

My inspiration came from lesson 3: Stamping with Stencils and I chose to watercolor over my stencil.

My Process:

I taped my stencil to a 6 x 6 piece of watercolor paper. Next, I wet my watercolor paper well with a brush. I then \”pounced\” three colors of distress ink onto the wet watercolor paper.
I haven\’t used my Zig markers in months but they were exactly what I wanted for this project because of their bright vibrant colors. I heat embossed my floral image, colored with Zigs and then die cut.
I die cut a white panel for the sentiment and to provide some contrast with the bold stripes and then heat embossed the sentiment. I glued the white panel to the background and then used foam tape to adhere the flowers.

Supplies:

Altenew Watercolor Stripes Stencil

Altenew Weekend Doodles stamp and die bundle

Distress Inks: Salty Ocean, Mermaid Lagoon and Twisted Citron

Zig Markers: Emerald, Green Shadow, Pale Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Yellow and Bright Yellow.

Watercolor Paper

Neenah Cardstock

Versafine Onyx Black ink and Clear Embossing Powder

Liquid Glue

Foam Tape

I am also playing along with:

Tuesday Throwdown Challenge #458

Lil Red Wagon Create Your Own Background Paper Challenge

Seize The Birthday All About Summer Challenge

I was so pleased to see this card chosen as a Top 3 at Tuesday Thowdown!

I am so pleased you stopped by and I would love to hear what you think about this card.

Karen

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Altenew Academy – Let It Shine

May 31, 2020 Karen Brown3 Comments

I finished Altenew Academy\’s Let It Shine Class and wanted to share this card on my blog. As the name suggests, our teacher Clarissa Wiley, taught us to embellish our cards with a bit of shine. I am happy with the way this card turned out….but boy did I put in a lot of work. I had a different layout created in my mind, but when I laid out the design there was too much metallic gold. I kept diecutting flags, banners and sentiments strips. Originally there was a lot more metallic gold cardstock but I decided for me, less is more…a little gold goes a long way! I will save the other elements I created for future cards and it will be nice to have them all ready to go.

My inspiration was to use metallic cardstock (lesson #5), gold embossing (lesson #2) and faux watercoloring over ink blending that I learned in Altenew Academy\’s Easy Ink Blending Class. Another example of this fun technique is here.

My Process:

I started by heat embossing this beautiful daisy in gold and then I lightly inkblended a pale yellow over the bloom. Next I gently sprayed the flower with water and then used a #8 brush and distress inks to paint on some darker yellow highlights using wet on wet watercoloring. I dried with a heat gun and then added random orange highlights using wet on dry watercoloring. I repeated the same technique with the leaves. I assembled the card using liquid glue and foam adhessive to raise up the flower bloom.

Supplies:

Altenew Smile More stamps and dies

Distress Inks

Watercolor Paper

Picket Fence Studios Life Changing Blending Brush

#8 Paint Brush

Gold Embossing Powder and Versafine Ink

Metallic Gold Cardstock

Scrap of green cardstock for sentiment

Liquid Glue

Foam Adhesive Tape

A2 cream colored card

As I said above, I tried a lot of layouts and decided in this instance, CAS was best for me.

I am also playing along at:

The Sisterhood of Crafters Favorite Technique Challenge. I recently learned how to faux watercolor and I am having so much fun with this new to me technique!

Global Design Project – Floral Challenge I am happy to add my flower to the GDP challenge.

I am so pleased that you stopped by!

Karen

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Altenew Academy – Cards For the Guys

May 28, 2020 Karen Brown3 Comments

Hello and welcome. Today, my blog post is about making masculine cards and I\’ve chosen to do a color blocking background. Fun, bright and eye-catching.

Altenew Academy Cards for the Guys using Color Blocking with Altenew Mega Alphabet T die and Large Thanks Sentiment die.

I started by cutting four 2×2 squares from brightly colored card stock. My inspiration came from Jennifer Rzasa and her class on Pop Art Color Blocking. Once the squares were cut, I taped them together, trimmed the edges for a nice even line and then backed with craft foam for dimension.

Next, I die cut the \”T\” from bright blue card stock and the \”thanks\” from lavender cardstock. I die-cut each three times and then carefully glued them together for nice dimension. I initially was going to back them with foam but didn\’t like the white shadow which I thought distracted from all the bright bold colors.

I made a 4 1/4\” x 4 1/4\” card base and then attached the color blocked panel. I weighted it for a few minutes with an acrylic block

Supplies Used:

Altenew Mega Alphabet T die

Altenew Large Thanks sentiment die

6 shades of brightly colored card stock

tape

liquid glue

craft foam

white cardstock for base.

I am also playing along with: Try It On Tuesday \”Cut It Out!\” Challenge This card is all about cutting as every element was either cut with a paper trimmer or die cut.

I really like how the card turned out and think I will do some more color blocking in the near future.

I am so pleased that you stopped by!

Karen

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Altenew Academy – Easy Ink Blending Techniques

May 25, 2020 Karen Brown1 Comment

Hello and welcome. I am excited about this new technique I learned at Altenew Academy! I love ink blending but had never done \”faux watercoloring\” like this. This is my homework assignment for lesson #5 and I was very inspired by our instructor, Amy Lee, and the process she walked us through.

This card has two firsts for me….ink blending on watercolor paper and faux watercoloring over ink blending. I personally had never considered ink blending on watercolor paper as it is rough, but it worked beautifully!

I started by heat embossing 8 images from Altenew\’s Smile More stamp set. I then inkblended yellow, pink, yellow green and blue over the embossing. Next, I dabbed 6 colors of dye ink on my glass media mat. When my palette was ready, I very lightly spritzed the lower inked panel with water. With a largish brush, I added contrast using very loose watercoloring (wet on wet). I dried the panel with my heat gun and then added more random color variation using the wet on dry technique. In total, I used 10 different colors of dye ink to complete my watercoloring. Last, I very lightly added some blue paint splatters. The watercolor paper warped slightly so I flattened it inside a heavy book.

I finished the card by stamping a large sentiment, mounted on a card base using craft foam for dimension and then added five buttercream jewels. I will definitely use this technique again in the future.

Supplies:

Altenew Smile More Stamp Set

Watercolor Paper

White Embossing Powder and Heat Gun

Picket Fence Studio Life Changing Brushes

Black Velvet Brushes (#8 for watercoloring and #2 for paint splatters)

Mini Spray Bottle

I made lots of beautiful ink blended backgrounds during this course, but
this was my favorite card.

I am playing along at As You Like It \”Favorite Embellishment\” Challenge I used these buttercream jewels which are my most used embellishment. The color seems to go with everything I create.

UPDATE: I was so pleased to see my card selected as \”Top 3\” at the As You Like It Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

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Altenew Academy – Clean and Simple Boutique Card

May 23, 2020 Karen Brown4 Comments

Hello and welcome. Today I am sharing my third card from my Altenew Academy journey. Jennifer Rzasa taught us about Clean and Simple Boutique cards and I learned a lot. I chose to write my blogpost about my homework assignment for lesson 2 – Stamped Backgrounds. I love pattern stamping, but this card pushed me out of my comfort zone because of the loose water coloring.

My inspiration came from Jennifer when she said don\’t worry about being precise…keep is casual. I chose to use Altenew\’s Garden Grow stamp set, which was the first Altenew purchase I ever made. It is still one of my favorites.

My Process:

I started by making an A2 card out of Bristol cardstock. I found the center of my card, and using an acrylic block, I stamped the first potted plant in the middle of the card. Working out from the middle I stamped the rest of the plants. I then went back and filled in with the rainboots. Next, I scribbled four colors of Zig watercolor markers on my glass media mat. The next part was the most challenging for me as Jennifer encouraged us to use a large brush and big strokes to fill in the images. I used two colors on each image starting with the lighter color and then adding contrast with the darker color.

The background is the card and I like how the colors are muted and understated.

Supply List:

Altenew Garden Grow Stamp Set

Bristol Cardstock

Zig Watercolor Markers (yellow, bright yellow, mid green and olive green)

I would also like to play along with Cardz 4 Galz CASE Your Wardrobe Challenge I have not one, not two but three pairs of olive green pants. They are all so comfy I keep buying more. My card has a simple palette of olive green and pale yellow.

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

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Altenew Academy All About Layering 2

May 18, 2020 Karen Brown1 Comment

Hello, thank you for stopping by. Today\’s blog post is showcasing my class project for Altenew Academy\’s All About Layering 2 class. I am using Altenew\’s Bride to Be stamp and die bundle. The cute little starflowers were my favorite.

I had not used layering stamps prior to starting Altenew Academy so I continued stamping loads of images which resulted in a nice full card. Our instructor used an acrylic block as opposed to a stamp positioner so I followed her lead and free stamped all my images. This was great practice for me.

I love paint splatters on other people\’s cards but am not usually happy with the result on my cards, so I decided to practice that technique as well. Because of this, I went very light with the ink splatters. I think next time I will try a few more. Lastly, I heat embossed the sentiment for a rich shiny accent.

I think the end result is a bright, fun and cheerful card.

I am also playing along with: The Happy Little Stampers \”Anything Goes with Dies\”

Karen

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Altenew Academy All About Layering 1

May 17, 2020 Karen Brown11 Comments

I\’ve been cardmaking for a little over three years and thought it might be time to see what I could learn at The Altenew Academy Teacher Certification Program. I applied and was pleased to see that I was invited to join their 17th class. The first class is \”All About Layering 1\”. I have actually never used layering stamps so this was a great way for me to start. I purchased their \”Bride to Be\” stamp and die bundle and started creating. Since I have never done layer stamping before I thought the best way for me to learn was to just stamp lots of images.

$Class Project for Altenew Academy\'s (AECP) All About Layering 1 Class using Bride to Be layering stamps and dies.$

The background, stems and tan flowers were all stamped using Altenew\’s Coffee Break ink cubes. For the sentiment, I hand inked a scrap of paper with navy ink and die cut it twice because I wanted the sentiment to coordinate with the blue flowers.

I normally stamp with a Misti, but the instructor used an acryllic block so I did also. I think it was good practice to stamp free hand.

I practiced on scratch paper to see which colors I liked and wound up with a simple tan and blue palette.

I am also playing along:

Just Add Ink \”Thinking of You\” (#505) During these uncertain times, I\’ve found myself making more hello/thinking of you/encouragement cards. This card is for a friend who is living alone, which is so hard during the quarantine.

A Place To Start: Create a Custom Background I handstamped my background for this card.

I was so pleased to see that this card was selected as \”The Winner\” at Just Add Ink.

I was honored that this card was selected as a \”Rising Star\” at A Place to Start.

I am so pleased that you stopped by!

Karen