Seasonal Scene Building

 Happy Sunday!

I have another Altenew Academy creation today. This one is for the Seasonal Scene Building by Nichol Spohr. This class has lots of ideas for using your stamps with other stamps or dies to create new images and scenes. I was inspired to use some floral images to create a cheerful scene.

For my card I combined a few of the lessons- Making a Window Scene and a little bit of Background Building.

I thought the flowers and leaves from Adore You would be great to make a little window type scene. I found some old oval dies from my stash and used those to create the window element. I didn't want my window opening to be a single colour though, so I blended some Faded Denim and Tumbled Glass distress oxides. I blended the lighter colour in the middle first and then blended the dark blue around the edges. 



I coloured my leaves and flowers with various alcohol markers. I coloured more than necessary since this allowed me to pick and choose which flowers looked best together and also allowed me to play around with the scene building. I decided that I liked two flowers on the bottom left and three flowers on the upper right best.

Next, I decided to make a subtle stamped card front using some darker grey cardstock. I really wanted the colours to shine in the scene I made. Lastly, I decided on a sentiment from Many Thanks. The larger greeting was stamped directly on the background and the smaller sentiment was stamped on a banner and popped up.

I'm quite happy with my little scene and it reminds me of a pretty corsage that could be worn.

I thought I would make a sketch of my card, keeping with my old Sunday sketches. Feel free to let it inspire you!



Supplies:
Stamps: Adore You, Many Thanks
Ink: Weathervane, Tuxedo Black, Black Onyx
Paper: White, Black, Weathervane
Accessories, etc.: Oval dies, alcohol markers

All About Layering 2

Hello! I'm back with another Altenew Academy project. This one is for All About Layering 2. This is a free class, so I highly encourage you to check it out. Even if you don't have any of the stamps featured in the class, it gives great tips overall for how to line up the layering style Altenew stamps and the card ideas are awesome too!

I don't own any of the stamps featured from this class, but I was heavily inspired by Yana's card in the bonus inspiration part of Lesson 1- Peony Bouquet. I used different colours, but I love how she made a cluster the focus of her card with a simple sentiment banner over top, so that's what I have done here.

I used Handpicked Bouquet, which is a really beautiful, elegant set. To start, I stamped the outline image in Rocky Shore ink. I used my Misti, so I could do two impressions to make it just a touch bolder. Next I decided on the rest of my palette- for the flowers, I used Blush for the lighter pinks and Coral Berry for the dark tones. For the leaves, I used Frayed Leaf for the base layer and Moss for the detailed layer.

Some key tips:
DO make use of the guide that comes with the Altenew sets, this is a huge time saver!!
DO use a stamp positioner. This allows you to re-stamp if you don't get a decent impression, but more importantly, it allows you to use the same ink colours to build up darker tones. 

On my card, I used the Coral Berry twice- I used it for the floral 2nd layer, and for the 3rd layer, I used it again, but I stamped that layer twice to make it even darker than the previous layer. 

Once I had all my fill in layers stamped, I stamped the outline once more to really make it pop, since some of the fill in layers had covered the outline which muddled it a bit.

Next I added my sentiment banner. I wanted to make sure my sentiment banner lay flush so it's adhered to the main image panel with regular tape, but I used a thin strip of foam tape for the part that is adhered to the card front.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps: Handpicked Bouquet
Ink: Frayed Leaf, Moss, Blush, Coral Berry, Rocky Shore
Paper: Kraft, White, Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush
Accessories, etc.: rhinestones.

Clean and Simple Boutique Style Cards

Hello everyone, I'm here with another duo of cards. This time for the class Clean and Simple Boutique Cards taught by the talented Jennifer Rzasa .

I was really excited for this class, because I love clean and simple cards. When I first started stamping, I did what was trendy at the time, which was lots of layers and sponged edges and ALL THE THINGS, it seemed. But as I became more confident as a crafter, I really found my own style and it definitely is more on the clean and simple side, with a few messier techniques thrown in. Although there are typically less layers, less stamping, less embellishments, and just less overall, the execution of getting the card "just so" can often take longer than a more detailed card.

For my cards, I took pointers from the Simple Styling lesson. The cards for this part of the lesson are all quite simple, but they have something about them that pops! I took that lesson and applied to the below two cards- keep it simple, but bring in a "pop" element, whether that's a simple embellishment, a pop of colour or dimension or something unexpected.

First up, I really wanted to use the Crafty Life stamp set. I own both the Crafty Life and Crafty Friends sets, and I love that there are a few sentiments in both that can still be used for non-crafter recipients. I saw this sentiment -My world is more colorful with you in it- and knew that I wanted to figure out a rainbow colour scheme. Although I didn't use any metallics here, I was inspired by one of Jennifer's cards that featured a bold sentiment over a watercoloured background, so that's what I've done here. I also find that the card itself feels more luxurious and boutique-y, due to the cotton watercolour paper.

I started with a few distress inks and painted simple stripes in rainbow order. I used Blueprint Sketch, Peacock Feathers, Mowed Lawn, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, and Candied Apple for my rainbow. A key tip for these is to use a paintbrush that is the approximate width that you are wanting each of your stripes, that way you don't have to fuss too much about getting them all the same width. It's okay to still have a little bit of variety with all the stripes, since that helps achieve a more organic and interesting look, but the paintbrush does help with consistency.

Next, was time to stamp the sentiment that inspired it all! I highly recommend using a stamp positioner (I used the MISTI) when inking up sentiments, especially when you've already put a lot of work into your background, and also when using textured paper, such as watercolour paper.

After that was stamped, I wanted that extra little "pop". I found this cute flower shaped button. It was white, so I used a yellow alcohol marker that coordinated nicely with the Mustard Seed stripe and coloured it. This allowed it to add a pop, while still blending in. I love the little something it added!

For this next card, I still had the Crafty Life set out and wanted to use these awesome block words. I thought this would make a fun card for one of my crafty friends. I used a stamping positioner to ensure that the 4 sentiment stamps were lined up and spaced evenly. I also used the MISTI for this because I wanted to ensure that the boldness of the block sentiments would be stamped and the MISTI allows for additional impressions if needed.

Next, I stamped a second "craft" on a scrap piece of the same kind of cardstock as the card base in Raspberry Fizz and cut that out. I popped it up with foam tape so in addition to the pink pop, it also pops because of the dimension. This is a great way to jazz up an otherwise one layer card. 

Due to the visual space of the sentiment, I decided that a 4-bar card would be a better fit. This was just the right amount of white space. Don't be afraid to use different card dimensions when attempting to achieve the right amount of white space. This really took the card from a lost, floating sort of feel to balanced.

Thanks for coming by! I hope you've been enjoying my posts so far this week. I have just a few more Level 1 cards to post and then I'm hoping to take on the Level 1 challenge and go through my Level 2 classes. I have been having so much fun learning new techniques, re-discovering older ones and using my Altenew stamps and dies to their full potential!

Supplies:

Stamps: Crafty Life

Ink: Blueprint Sketch, Peacock Feathers, Mowed Lawn, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, and Candied Apple, Ranger Archival Black ink, Raspberry Fizz (PTI)

Paper: White, Watercolor paper

Accessories, etc.: small button, yellow alcohol marker, foam tape, paint brush

Irresistible Ink Techniques

Good morning everyone!

I'm back with some more class projects from Altenew Academy for the Altenew Educator Certification Program the Irresistible Ink Technique class taught by Sara Naumann. My big takeaway from this class was that inks are more than just for inking up stamps. Ink pads are really just a great tool that holds dye or pigment that can be used to interact with pretty much anything! Sure, we primarily use them to ink up stamps, but they can be used for so much more!

I decided to tackle stamp block inking. In order to get better coverage, I added a bit of water and used watercolor paper, so it's similar to a "smooshed" technique.

Here are some of my blocked, pre-card pieced. It was so much fun to play with ink and paper and get messy! This is one thing I loved about this class, it really inspired me to get messy and it got me playing with my supplies!

For the upper left sample- I used a single larger block. For the upper right sample, I used several smaller blocks, dedicating one colour to each block. For the bottom sample, I did the block stamping in stages. I really liked how that one turned out, but it wasn't big enough for what I wanted, so I actually found an even bigger block and did it again (which is featured on the first card below).

Here's the card, I have several very large blocks, so I used my largest one. It's about 4.5 x 5.25 in size. I inked up the block and added water so I would get a bit of blending between the colours. I stamped with it, let it dry, and then I couldn't help but add some more splatters. This technique is fantastic for achieving a perfectly blended watercolour look, with no fuss!

I trimmed the blocked panel down and matted it on some white cardstock and then placed that on a Coastal Cabana card front. I stamped the two leaf clusters from Leaf Canopy, using the same inks and rocked the edges in the the teal ink for a little more depth. I cut those out and adhered them over the blocked background with foam tape. The sentiment is from Handpicked Bouquet. 

My next card features one of the blocked samples from above.




This time, I really wanted to feature the blocking, so I trimmed it down, but left the natural white edge. I used Leaf Canopy again and stamped the smaller leaf cluster in Versamark and embossed it with white. The sentiment comes from that same set. I used the teal ink that I used in the blocking to stamp the sentiment. That was placed on the card using foam tape for that little "pop".

Supplies (some affiliate links used):

Stamps: Leaf Canopy, Handpicked Bouquet (Altenew)

Ink: Blueberry Sky, Tropical Teal, Hawaiian Shores, Green Parakeet, Bright Buttercup, Summer Sunrise (all by Papertrey Ink), Versamark

Paper: Watercolour Paper, Coastal Cabana (Stampin' Up!), Hawaiian Shores, Green Parakeet (Papertrey Ink)

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you'll check out the class!

Easy Die-Cutting Techniques

Hello everyone! I'm back from my month+ long hiatus. The holidays are a busy season, and although I got a decent amount of crafting done, I needed a bit of a blog break.

I'm back today with a few Altenew cards. I've jumped back into getting my Level 1 certification completed for the Altenew Educator Certification Program. Today's cards are for the Easy Die Cutting Techniques class, taught by the amazing Yana Smakula. This class is fantastic if you're really looking for some other ways to use your die cuts. You'll be looking at your dies in a whole new light! I highly recommend you check it out!

I started by using the Striped Leaf Cover die. This die is a great stand alone die, but this class really had me looking at how I could get more from it. Cover plates in particular make really great stencils. The great thing about stencils is that you can use them to cover the entire card front or opt to use only a section.  I die-cut the cover plate out of a thin, but durable paper and used that as a stencil.

I often think of greens when I use this cover die, but I thought it'd be fun to use some bright fall colours, so I used a red-orange-yellow colour palette of distress inks. I had so much fun with the stenciling that I had to make another one right away.

Here's my card submission for the class. I decided to jazz up the background by splattering inks over top. I recommend keeping some acrylic black ink on hand if you're wanting black ink splatters. I watered some down to get the bolder black splatters on the project.

To complete the card, I stamped 3 "thanks" from the Many Thanks set, cut them out and stacked them and then completed the greeting by stamping the "for your kindness" onto the stenciled background.

Here's my "cleaner" version of the card above. I opted for no paint splatters on this one. I used the same thank you set, but this time embossed one of the sentiments on red cardstock, using white embossing powder.

And here are the two pieces together!

This class definitely inspired me to go through my dies and seek out other uses beyond the original intended purpose. I can see myself using this technique with many other cover dies, or even making my own stencil by die-cutting several smaller dies.

Supplies:
Stamps: Many Thanks 
Dies: Striped Leaf Cover die.
Ink: Candied Apple, Ripe Persimmon, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed (all distress inks), Versamark, Black Onyx Versafine
Paper: white, red
Accessories, etc.: white embossing powder, black acrylic paint

Cheers

Happy Sunday,

I don't have a sketch to share today, but here's the anniversary card I made for my parents this year. It's their 41st anniversary today. The actual "Happy Anniversary" greeting is on the inside. I just recently got this "cheers" die cut, so I really wanted to use it. I love that it works with a multitude of happy occasions.

Since getting the ScanNCut, I hadn't used it much with solid colour images, so I decided that needed to change today. I never purchased the coordinating dies for the Rosie Posie stamp set and yet I always ended up fussy cutting out all the elements. So I stamped several flowers and leaves and cut it all out with the machine in a few minutes.

I liked the idea of bringing in a stitched frame as a way to kind of "attach" all of the floral and leaf elements. I die cut a stitched rectangle from some Simply Chartreuse paper and adhered that to a Rustic White card base. I arranged all the elements and then in order to make the "Cheers" stand out a bit more, I decided to make an offset outline from vellum to place it on. 

So all in all, a bit of a busier card than most that I've made as of late, but it was a lot of fun!

Supplies (affiliate links used):

Stamps: Rosie Posie

Ink: Summer Sunrise, Bright Buttercup, Pure Poppy, Dark Chocolate, Cocoa Bean, Simply Chartreuse, Ripe Avocado, Orange Zest

Paper: Rustic White, Simply Chartreuse, Pure Poppy, Vellum, Neenah Solar White 80lb

Dies: Mondo Cheers

Celebrate!

Hey everyone!

Today I am guest designing for the latest Create a Smile Stamps challenge. The theme is Celebrate! This is such a great theme since it can mean many different things to different people. I decided to make a birthday/celebration card featuring Gull Gang.

When I saw this stamp set, I knew I had to have it. First of all- those gulls are so cute and a bit sassy. There's also some really fun sentiments in that set that I haven't ever seen from other companies.

I started with the gulls and the woodposts and coloured them with various copic markers. I had a few party hats stamped out from various Lawn Fawn sets, but I see that the Dress Me Up set has the perfect party hat in it!

Next up was making the scene. I used a stitched rectangle die to give the scene a more finished edge.
I used some post-it note tape to create the horizon. Above that line, I left the background white and stenciled clouds using Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink. For the ocean, I blended Salty Ocean all over and then used a wave stencil with Chipped Sapphire Distress Oxide ink to create the look.

I wanted the wood posts to be in the water and not just floating, so I used an X-acto knife and cut openings that aligned with the waves and then tucked the posts in. Once the scene was set, I went about adding my sentiment. The "Let's Celebrate" is from the Mini Birthday set and the "you" is from the Cool Cuts You die. I stacked three to give the sentiment extra dimension.

Now for the fun part for you!

The great thing about these challenges is there is a prize! Create a Smile Stamps gives away a 25-euro gift card! Also, you can make use of their awesome freebies (I'm thinking about making a new year's card with the sentiment and kangaroo from the freebies). I definitely recommend checking out the stamps and dies though too- they are excellent quality. Even coming from Germany, they took no longer than anything I've ever ordered from the USA (if you're on the fence about ordering).

Hope to see you all play along!

A few Christmas Cards

Happy Sunday!

I am taking a few weeks off from the weekly sketches over the holidays. I'll still be posting a few cards here and there, just not the sketch cards. Feel free to still be inspired by the sketches here.

My goal is to update the "drawn" style of the sketches (people didn't seem as receptive to them) and then maybe even start some new ones!

But for now, I thought I would share a few of the one-of-a-kind cards I made for my crafty crew. There's about 10 of us that meet every month for Stamp Club (one is still a Stampin' Up demo), and even though those monthly gatherings are Stampin' Up focused, we get together for other crafty dates and getaways. Anyway, here are some of the cards!

I mostly used Lawn Fawn and My Favorite Things.

Fall to Layout #101 Take Two

Happy Weekend!

I'm taking a very small break from all things Christmas and have a birthday card to share today. I've had this set, Beep Boop Birthday for a few months. I didn't get the dies though, so haven't been using it to its potential. However, I recently got a really great deal on a ScanNCut so I finally used them since I didn't have to fussy cut them!

Here's the sketch:

Dimensions:
Card Base: 4-1/4 x 5-1/2
Main Layer (total): 3 x 4-1/4
Two pieces at 1/2 x 4-1/4, center piece 2-1/2 x 4-1/4
Main Layer Mat: 3-1/8 x 4-3/8
Star/Circle component: approximately 1-3/4

Here's my card:

I coloured the two robots and a cupcake from this set using Copics. I decided to place those on a pointed circle since it reminded me of a gear. I used the 4 mini gears in this set to create a background pattern on the light grey. Originally I wanted to use the speech bubble (in the top left of the pic), but it just didn't work for placement, so I went with a sentiment banner instead.

Supplies (some affiliate links used at no cost to you):

Stamps: Beep Boop Birthday

Inks: Smoky Slate, Tuxedo Black

Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Smoky Slate, Pacific Point, Black, Raspberry Fizz, White

Dies: Limitless Layers 1-3/4 Circle die collection

If you play along, please leave a link:

Fall to Layout #100 Take Two

Happy Sunday!

I hope you're not tired of Christmas cards yet! I made so many this weekend. This was one of the simpler ones I made. Here's the sketch: 

As far as dimensions go, it's really up to you. Just make sure the upper scalloped layer is about 80% of the card. You don't even have to make it scalloped- a straight edge or some other border is good here!

Here's the card. I had this stitched snowflake background in my scrap stash, so I decided to update it to match the sketch by using this scalloped stitch border die. If you interested in how it was made- I lay several stitched snowflake dies on the white cardstock and used a rubber embossing mat to prevent the dies from cutting. This is a fun way to make your own backgrounds and really stretches the dies!

I added some organdy ribbon and adhered it to a red card base. The sentiment is a mix between a Papertrey Ink sentiment and the "merry" was cut using the ScanNCut.

If you play along, please leave a link!

Fall to Layout #99 Take Two

Hello everyone. I have a simple floral sympathy to share today.

Here's the sketch. When I originally designed this sketch, I think it was meant to be a longer style card, but today it worked well as a standard card base.

Approximate Measurements:

• Card Base: 4-1/4 x 5-1/2
• Main Image: 4-1/8 x 3-1/8
• Border: 4-1/8 x 1/2
• Sentiment (varies by selection)

I started by stamping just one of the corners of this large image from Sketched Flowers in Rich Cocoa Memento ink. I used many Stampin' Blends markers to colour it in. For my border, I didn't want it to be plain, so I stamped the single leaf image from this same set in Spring Moss on Spring Moss card stock. The rest came together pretty quickly. I wanted a bit more separation between the main layer and the base, so I framed it with a very thin Ripe Avocado frame.

Supplies:
Stamps: Sketched Flowers
Ink: Rich Cocoa, Versafine Black Onyx, Spring Moss
Paper: Dark Chocolate, Ripe Avocado, Spring Moss, Scarlet Jewel, White
Accessories, etc.: Stampin' Blends markers.

If you play along, please leave a link:

Fall to Layout #98 Take Two

Happy Sunday!

I've got today's sketch card ready for you. It's also a dual purpose card, I decided to take a stab at the most recent Lawn Fawnatics challenge. It's a colour challenge, so I went through my stash of paper, inks, and markers and found some good matches for the inspiration image. Although I have the paper that the inspiration piece is based on, I wanted to challenge myself by not using that specific paper.

Here's the sketch:

Dimensions I used:

• Card Base: 4-1/4 x 5-1/2
• Squares: 1-1/2 x 1-1/2
• Frame for the squares: Approx 1-3/4 x 5
• Lower paper strip: 1-3/4 x 5-1/2
• I also ended up cutting down the final scene to about 5-3/8 x 4-1/8 since I wanted a slight white frame from the card base.

Here's the card:

I had a lot of fun making this. It felt good to do a colour challenge. I started with my colour palette. For the inks and papers I went with Papertrey Ink-Amethyst Allure, Hawaiian Shores, Green Parakeet, Summer Sunrise, and Hibiscus Burst. I also used a piece of green dotted patterned paper from the Really Rainbow Christmas Petite paper pack and some Pretty in Pink cardstock for the speech bubble.

The unicorns (from Say What Christmas Critters) were coloured mostly with Stampin' Blends (Stampin' Up! alcohol markers, with a few Copics and Touch5 markers for some of the other details). I also added a bit of shimmer to the horn and the hooves. The white squares were stamped with various snowflakes and stars from the Holiday Helpers and Thanks a Latte.

If you play along, please leave a link! I love to see what you create!

Fall to Layout #97 Take Two

.

Hello!

I've got this week's sketch ready! The butterfly elements can be any object you like. I decided to go with snowflakes, since I still need to build up my Christmas card stash.

Measurements are pretty straight forward. My card base is 4-1/4 x 5-1/2. The background layer is 4 x 5-1/4. The sentiment banner is approximately 3 x 1/2 (but really this is subject to whatever sentiment you choose).

Here's my card:

I decided to not use the traditional white coloured "white space". I wanted to use snowflakes and in order to make them pop, I made a blended background. I blended Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch and Faded Jeans. I spritzed it with water, let it dry and then added many ink splatters (white, chipped sapphire and silver).

Next I cut out my snowflakes (from Lawn Fawn's stitched snowflake die set), choosing three different sizes. The banner is stamped on a piece of navy cardstock and embossed with silver embossing powder. The sentiment is from the Lawn Fawn Holiday Helpers set.

If you play along, please leave a link:

Fall to Layout #96- Take Two

Hello everyone, I hope you’re ready for some rainbow cards. First up, I’ve got a card based on last week’s sketch. I managed to get something made later last week but didn’t have a chance to share it til today.

Dimensions:
Card base: 4-1/4 x 5-1/2
Layer (total size) 4-3/4 x 3-1/2
Smaller strip 1-3/4 x 3-1/2

I started by stamping a rainbow and several clouds from Best Ever onto some white cardstock. I coloured them with copics then cut them out. I also added a bit of shimmer to the clouds. To make the bottom strip I decided to make my own patterned paper by using the long happy birthday sentiment stamp and stamping in repeatedly. I added a tiny bit of bakers twine around that layer for the small ribbon element of the sketch. I deviated only a little- I didn’t use scallops and I ended up adding an extra cloud and some sequins for added shimmer and better overall balance.

Here's this week's sketch:

Dimensions:
Card base 4-1/2 x 5-1/2
Image layer 4 x 3-1/4
Image mat layer 4-1/8 x 3-3/8.


I used the same stamp set for this week’s sketch.

This time the focus were the hearts in the set. I embossed several of the lines hearts and a few of the small hearts all over some white cotton letterpress paper and then embossed them with white embossing powder. Next I decided on my palette. I used many distress inks for painting: picked raspberry, candied apple, spiced marmalade, mustard seed, twisted citron, lucky clover, peacock feathers, salty ocean, blueprint sketch and wilted violet. For the background I used tumbled glass. I love this look because it is detailed but because of the repeated images it is quite quick to colour. I decided on a simple black frame to layer it on and placed the whole thing onto some Pixie Pink paper with dimensionals. The greeting comes from Keep it Simple: Birthday.




I used some other old stampin up colours on these cards- tempting turquoise and lovely lilac, in addition to the pixie pink. The old colour family of basic brights had some really good vibrant colours. I’m glad I still have a few pieces in my stash! Finally, here are the two cards together in all their rainbow-y goodness:

If you play along this week, please leave a link.