Altenew July 2022 Summer Love Collection Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

July 22, 2022July 24, 2022 Karen Brown43 Comments

Altenew Fantasy Emblem 3D Embossing Folder

Altenew's Fantasy Emblem 3D Embossing Folder done in faux metallic using an Antique Bronze Distress Crayon.

Hello and thanks for stopping by! Altenew just released a lovely collection of 3D Embossing Folders as part of their Summer Love Collection, and I made 3 very different projects. I started by making a very masculine card using the Fantasy Emblem 3D Embossing Folder. My inspiration was an antique metal medallion.

My Process:

I started by embossing a piece of black cardstock with the Fantasy Emblem 3D Embossing Folder.
Next I tinted white pigment ink with Ocean Waves Crisp Dye Ink. On my craft mat, I dabbed the pigment ink and then Ocean Waves Crisp Dye Ink next to the white and then I mixed the two together. I blended this all over the embossed panel to “age” the cardstock.
I colored Antique Bronze Distress Crayon on the raised areas and then blended with my finger.
I die cut my sentiment (Script Words Die) from kraft card stock and then attached my panel to a kraft base.

This card was quick and easy to make but looks so rich in person.

Masculine Faux Metallic Medallion handmade card + 3D embossing folder

Altenew Playful Circles 3D Embossing Folder

This embossing folder is definitely a new favorite that will work with so many papercrafting projects! Today, I combined Altenew’s Craft-A-Flower: Garden Rose with the very versatile Playful Circles 3D Embossing Folder. The embossing folder adds loads of texture and interest to the card. The embossed panel is very pretty on both sides….depressed and impressed.

Products Used:

Altenew Playful Circles 3 D Embossing Folder + Enchanting Washes designer paper pack.

Altenew Flower Vines 3D Embossing Folder

A "Shabby Chic" handmade card + Altenew's Flower Vines 3D Embossing Folder.

For my last card I went for a whimsical Shabby Chic look.

I started by ink blending my panel with Altenew’s Ocean Waves Crisp Dye Ink.
After the ink dried, I embossed the panel with the Flower Vines 3D Embossing Folder.
Using a Mini Ink Blending Brush, I very lightly inked the raised floral elements with Dusk Dye Ink.
I gently applied clear pigment ink to portions of the panel and then sprinkled on Golden Peach Embossing Powder. I brushed most of the embossing powder off but left the powder in and around the embossed crevices. I heat set the powder.
I inked the sides of the panel with clear pigment ink, applied Golden Peach Embossing Powder and then heat set.
I die cut my sentiment, Altenew’s Thanks Die, and gently inked the die cut with Ocean Waves Crisp Dye Ink to “age” it a bit so it wasn’t so white. I popped it on a card base and was done.

Altenew's Flower Vines 3D Embossing Folder handmade card.

Special Offer!

Receive a FREE Ultra Sticky Double Sided Tape ($11.99 value) on orders over $79 from 07/22/2022 at 12:01 am EDT until 07/24/2022 at 11:59 pm EDT. The free gift will be added to cart automatically. Find more details on the Promotions page.

Giveaway Prizes

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 2 lucky winners and a $25 gift certificate to 8 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 07/28/2022 for a chance to win.

Altenew will draw 10 winners randomly from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 07/29/2022.

Blog Hop Order

Reiko Tsuchida ***Note: Due to strict regulations in Japan, you might not be able to leave a comment on her blog post.

Annemarie Caister

Linda Westfall

Karen Brown You made it to the end!

I love all three projects! Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

cardmaking · Mixed Media · papercrafting

Visible Images “Live in the Moment” Stamped Dragonfly Cards

April 18, 2022April 18, 2022 Karen BrownLeave a comment

Visible Images "Live in the Moment" stamped dragonfly sympathy card.

Don’t you just love Dragonflies? I really like how this sympathy card turned out. I heat embossed the dragonfly from Visible Images “Live in the Moment” stamp set on a gel press print and added a Rubbernecker Three Line Frame border.

My sister-in-law loves dragonflies too so I made this card for her birthday this month. I ink blended my background and then heat embossed the dragonflies and sentiment.

Handmade heat embossed dragonfly card with ink blend background.

I had a strip of background left over so I made a third card…I love bonus cards!

I am so glad you stopped by!

Karen

cardmaking · papercrafting

Paper Artsy Mixed Media Cards

January 1, 2022January 4, 2022 Karen Brown4 Comments

Paper Artsy Whimsical Tree Mixed Media cards.

Happy New Year! I recently received a lovely package from Paper Artsy and had a fun day in my studio. I created two cards with slightly different takes. Both cards have gel press print backgrounds made with Paper Artsy’s Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic paint. This was my first time using Chalk Acrylics and I think the end result is beautiful. I used Hey Pesto green, Butternut orange and white for both backgrounds.

For the cards, I stamped and heat embossed the Paper Artsy tree on watercolor paper and colored them with watercolor markers. I then fussy cut the images. The sentiment is Ranger Letter It: Greetings.

Paper Artsy Whimsical Tree with Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Background

For this first card, I also stamped the tree with a script background stamp to enhance the whimsical feel. The card background was stamped with the tree and then my fussy cut panel was added with foam squares for a nice dimensional feel.

Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Gel Print background in Hey Pesto green and Butternut Orange.

For this second card I went for layers. I stamped the tree directly onto the gel print, then added the fussy cut tree on top using foam squares. I also stamped and watercolored a third panel and then fussy cut four aqua segments. These four pieces were adhered on top, so that in some places, the tree has three layers of dimension. I hope you can see that from the photo above.

Paper Artsy Whimsical Tree with Gel Press Print background

Multi-Media Collage Companion Card

Multimedia Gel Press Collage Card with Paper Artsy Chalk Acrylic and stamps.

I had some gel press prints leftover and decided to make a quick collage card. I tore off three pieces of paper (you can see the same green top right and orange bottom edge) and glued it to my panel (3.5″ x 4.75″) with UHU Gel glue stick. This glue stick works amazingly well, I didn’t need to use any liquid medium. I added some gesso, lots of stamping, paint splatters, dots-dashes-coloring (with Inktense pencils). On the top left corner I applied gesso, then did a bit of loose messy watercoloring plus the sentiment.

Paper Artsy Chalk Acrylic Paint and stamps on a multi-media gel press collage card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

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WWC294 – Marsha\’s Challenge: Anything Goes With a Masculine Twist

October 21, 2020 Karen Brown10 Comments

Hello, hello and welcome! This week we are creating masculine cards at Watercooler Wednesday. I\’ve made a fun mixed media card using Altenew\’s Mega T Aphabet die and thanks die.

My Process:

I started with a 140 lb weight watercolor panel and then die cut the T.
With a wide rough brush (I used a house painting trim brush) I applied a layer of gesso and then dried.
Using a Carved Pumpkin mini distress ink cube I dabbed orange on the panel in random locations.
I sprayed Iridescent Shimmer Spray to the panel which moved the distress ink around a bit and then dried with a heat tool.
I added another layer of randomly dabbed Carved Pumpkin Distress Ink which I again activated with the shimmer spray and then dried.
I then mixed gesso with Mermaid Lagoon distress ink and applied with a strip of cardstock for a rustic feel. I then tinted the gesso a bit darker with the same distress ink and applied a bit more with the cardstock strip. This way I have two shades of aqua on the card which I think gives added interest. Dry.
I dabbed a bit of Versamark ink on the panel, sprinkled on gold embossing powder and rubbed off most of it so that there were just touches of gold on the panel. I heat set.
I die cut the thanks die from turquoise card stock.
I added the T panel to a cream colored A2 cardbase and glued on the sentiment.

This thank you card was so fun to make! There is a gorgeous shimmery sheen that does not photograph well, but the card just glows in person.

I am also playing along with:

Cardz for Guyz Colors of Autumn and Fall

The Card Concept #142 Autumn Bounty

Simon Says Stamp \”Layer It Up\” I used 7 layers of gesso, distress ink, shimmer spray, embossing powder plus two die cut layers.

I am so glad that you stopped by!

Karen

Uncategorized

Altenew Academy – Impressive Heat Embossing

August 6, 2020 Karen Brown3 Comments

Hello! I just completed another course at Altenew Academy called Impressive Heat Embossing. So many great cardmaking techniques from Svetlana Marchenko!

This card is from lesson #3, Heat Embossing for Resist.

$Ink Blending Resist over Altenew\'s Inked Lotus stamp.$

I love to ink-blend so I chose to ink blend over my embossing. For ink blending it is best to start with light colors and then add the darker tones. I started with my palest yellow, then added sunshine yellow and finished up with orange highlights. For the stem I used two shades of green. I die-cut my \”thanks\” from aqua paper and I like the big showy sentiment. I love how bright and cheery this card turned out.

Altenew Supplies:

Altenew Inked Lotus

Altenew Thanks die

I am so pleased that you stopped by!

Karen

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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

Uncategorized

WWC276 – Marsha\’s Challenge: Anything Goes with a Masculine Twist

June 17, 2020 Karen Brown4 Comments

Hello and welcome. Today we are making masculine cards at The Watercooler Wednesday Challenge and Marsha is our hostess. I like the look of grunge/mixed media cards but I\’ve never made one myself. I decided to give it a try with this dragonfly.

My Process:

I started by inking my glass media mat with various shades distress ink. I sprayed with water and then laid a sheet of watercolor paper on the ink/water. I dried with a heat tool and repeated this process a couple of times.
After the panel was dry I stenciled and stamped random elements on the panel
I then heat embossed the dragonfly and sentiment.

Supply List:

Visible Images \”Live In the Moment\” dragonfly stamp

Visible Images circle stamps

SSS Sketchy Lines background stamp

Tim Holtz Brick Layering Stencil

Ancient rubber stamp numbers

Stamps of Life sentiment

Nuvo Hot Chocolate Embossing Powder

Various colors of Distress Ink

Watercolor paper

I am playing along with:

Try It On Tuesday Make It Masculine Challenge

Tuesday Throwdown – For a Special Guy

This is a fun technique that I want to do again in the future.

I am so pleased that you stopped by!

Karen

Uncategorized

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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WWC274 – Dawn\’s Challenge: Anything Goes with a Feminine Twist

June 3, 2020 Karen Brown7 Comments

Hello and welcome! We are making \”feminine\” cards this week at The Watercooler Wednesday Challenge Website and Dawn is our hostess.

I\’ve been admiring \”grid\” cards online and decided I wanted to make a watercolor botanical version.

My Process:

I decided to make an oversized A6 card since there is so much going on with the layout. I started by sketching six 1 1/4\” by 1 1/2\” rectangles on a watercolor panel. I added clean water into the first rectangle and then dropped in sap green and turquoise and let them blend for this wet on wet technique. I repeated this process for each rectangle, varying the color combinations as I went. The images were heat embossed for a vibrant silhouette. I backed the panel with craft foam and popped on an A6 card base made from watercolor cardstock.

I really like the framed silhouette look.

Supplies:

Altenew Garden Grow stamp set

\”Hi\” sentiment from Altenew Pinstripes background die

Watercolor Paper

Watercolors: sap green, turquoise, blue, olive, yellow and orange

Versafine Ink

Embossing Powder

Heat Gun

Brushes

I am also playing along with:

The Inspired Challenge: All the Details I was inspired by the grid layout and floral/botanical paper flowers.

Addicted to Stamps: Make Your Mark Challenge I made my mark with Watercolors.

Time Out \”Free\” Challenge I took \”time out\” to create this garden card. My husband and I have afternoon lattes in the garden every afternoon and that is where we enjoy spending our \”free\” time.

Hand Stamped Sentiments: #340 Challenge I was inspired by the squares.

I am so pleased that you stopped by!

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