Altenew Academy – Masking Unleashed

August 16, 2020 Karen Brown3 Comments

Hello! Well, I am still camping out while work continues on my house, but it left me plenty of time to finish my next Altenew class called Masking Unleashed. I did have to run home to get my inks and blending brushes. Svitlana Shayevich taught us loads of useful tips and techniques.

For this card, I chose to work on negative masking. In the past, I’ve done positive masking where you cover the image you are working on. With negative masking, you cover the area surrounding an image. In lesson 4, Svitlana also taught us how to ink blend with Negative Masking.

I decided Altenew’s Mega Alphaget “T” die would work well and started planning a thank you card.

My Process:

I trimmed a piece of masking paper to 4 1/4” x 5 1/2”, taped the die in the center and then ran it through my die cutting machine. I then carefully adhered it to a Bristol Cardstock panel.
Next, I lightly blended four shades of Distress Ink from the bottom to the top.
I taped the stencil at an angle over the “T” and blended 5 shades over the stencil using a much heavier hand. I carefully peeled back the masking paper, trimmed the panel down, attached some craft foam to the back and added it to a top folding A2 panel.
I die cut a sentiment from navy Cardstock and glued it to the panel. I also added three enamel dots in coordinating colors.

Pro Tip: Make sure the masking paper is firmly in place before you start ink blending so you have sharp clean lines. I used a bone folder.

Featured Supplies:

Altenew Mega Alphabet “T” die

Altenew Watercolor Stripes stencil

Altenew Thanks die

Altenew New Day Enamel Dots

Just Add Ink “T” Challenge. My card is T for thanks.

I am so pleased that you stopped by!

Karen

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Altenew Academy – Seasonal Scene Building

June 5, 2020 Karen Brown7 Comments

Hello and welcome. I just finished Nichol Spohr\’s Altenew class on scene building and wanted to share this card. I love \”scene cards\” so this class was very fun for me. My card concept was \”coffee in the garden\”. I was especially inspired by Nicole\’s lessons #1 and #4 on creating scenes and die-cut scenes.

My Process:

Once I came up with my coffee in the garden theme, I started by working on my background. I wanted to use a stencil technique that I learned in Laurel Beard\’s Stencil Techniques class. I had never worked with embossing/texture paste and I found I really liked it. I knew I wanted a subtle plank like background so I made three….a neutral tan, soft blue and light yellow. I tinted the paste with dye ink and used a palette knife to work it through my stencil. I left the finish a bit rough and rustic and then put the panels aside to dry. I really like the texture and look of the background.

Next I stamped, Copic colored and die cut my images. By this time my backgrounds were dry so I laid the die-cuts on each and decided I liked the neutral tan the best. I adhered the images with foam tape and popped on a card base.

Supplies Used:

Altenew Garden Grow stamp and die bundle

Altenew Tea Time stamp and die bundle

Altenew Watercolor Stripes Background stencil

Altenew Sand Dunes Crisp die ink (to tint the paste)

Texture paste and pallet knife

Copic markers

Foam tape

I am also joining:

As You Like It Scene Challenge I enjoy a latte in my garden every afternoon and depicted this scene on my card.

Time Out Proust Quote Challenge This is a wonderful quote that speaks to me. I focused on the gardening aspect of the quote for my card.

Update:

I was so pleased to learn that my card was selected as a top three at Time Out Challenges.

I think this is a fun scene card that would work for a man or woman. Thank your 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.