Amazing You

Hi Everybody,

I recently signed up for a few Altenew Academy classes and after each lesson there is homework so I'm going to try to work in at least one card a week from my lessons.  I'm currently taking a class on Backgrounds taught by Lydia Evans called Beyond Basic Backgrounds.  She is a fabulous teacher!  

I want to branch out and learn new ways to design my cards and I love making backgrounds so I'm really enjoying these lessons.  (I'm behind in my homework oops)

I love the colors that I used on this card.  This is one of the set of four mini ink cubes from Altenew called, Cool Summer Night.  These colors are light aqua to a beautiful teal.  Lydia used a stamp set in the lesson that I don't have so I chose Amazing You.  I chose three dies from the set and cut them out on a piece of cardstock about 3/4 of the way down and used that as stencil.  I inked the openings in the stencil dark at top and bottom and lighter toward the middle just using a jumbo sponge dauber.  I did two layers to blend the ink really well. Next I stamped the coordinating stamp in the stencil openings with Versamark Ink and embossed in white.

I love the sentiment that I used here.  I embossed it on a strip of vellum using Versafine Onyx Black Ink and then embossed with clear embossing powder and then cut out with a My Favorite Things Die-Namics Interactive Oval Word Windows. I didn't use these dies as intended, I just used them to cut a strip for my sentiment. 

I'm really happy with how this card turned out.  I did something similar to this years ago but I didn't use a stencil back then (we didn't have all of these awesome coordinating dies several years ago!), I stamped and embossed over it making a background. 

Please stay tuned to more cards from my 'homework'.  I hope you'll check out the classes at Altenew Academy.  They're less than $10 and well worth the money.  There is a brand new class each month and I've noticed that usually a 20% off early bird specials is offered.  

Thank you so much for stopping by and have a great day.

Regina

Vellum Overlay Mother's Day Card

Hi Everybody,

I finally finished my two Mother's Day cards.  I'm usually not this late but I had knee replacement surgery and it has been a challenge to make cards because I can't sit at my desk for long periods at a time so it is taking me longer to finish a card.  Normally there would be nothing wrong with that but I kind of have a deadline with Mother's Day. :)  I'll show one today and one tomorrow. 

I made this card for my Mother in Law.  I've been wanting to make this card for a long time.  This is from a Jennifer McGuire video called Vellum Overlay.  I wanted to make something a little different and I thought with the card base being vellum instead of cardstock, that would be considered different to what I normally make.  

She loves green and purple so I used the Beautiful Day layered flower stamp set from Altenew.  I had to go through my inks and pick ones that layered right so after I made this card, I ordered three sets of mini ink cubes from Altenew so that next time, I won't have to spend the time choosing colors for layered flowers. The inside saying, "I Love You To the Moon and Back" is something that she says to my husband all the time so he wanted it in the card.  The stamp is from Stampabilities. 

Please excuse my photos.  I couldn't get great pictures because the vellum makes them looked washed out. 

I love the large Mother die.  This came from Sweet 'N Sassy Stamps but it is no longer available.  I cut the die out with foam and Stick It so that it would have dimension and put some Nuvo Crystal Drops called Violet Galaxy over the word die to give it the pearly purple look.  I added a few lavender pearls as embellishments for the front and a purple gem in the center of the flower.  I used Brutus Monroe Alabaster (white) Embossing Powder to emboss the front of the vellum.  

Be sure to use a heavy weight vellum.  I used a 48# and it still warped a little from using the heat gun so I just stuck it under my MISTI with a piece of copy paper over it to protect it and that flattened it out. 

I'm glad I finally made this card.  There are quite a few steps involved so if you make it, take your time and enjoy the process. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!

Regina

50th Anniversary Card

Hi Everybody,

I made a 50th Anniversary card using Altenew stamps, Beautiful Day and Thinking of You stamp sets.  I wish you could see this card in person, it is so beautiful. The pictures do not do it justice.

I actually made a video on how to make this card just playing around.  My intention was to make the card and not talk and I talked the entire time!  It's not edited yet but if you're interested in seeing it, I can publish it in the near future.  I don't think I did too bad for the first one but there are about 3 things I need to edit out lol.

I took a lattice die and cut it out using acetate and then used that acetate die cut as a stencil.  How cool is that!  I used Cosmic Shimmer Paste in gold and just used a palette knife to spread it over the stencil being sure to cover all of the openings well.  The excess goes back into the jar.  Cosmic Shimmer Paste spreads like a dream too.  These are so easy to work with, I don't have to 'futz' (is this a word) with it very much like I do the Dreamweaver ones.  I let it dry for several hours.

 
Then I used my MISTI and the corners to make sure the sentiments were straight.  I colored the flower from Altenew Beautiful Day stamp set with Copic markers in R20, R22, and R24 and used Y17 in the center.  I used some gold Stickles to line some of the petals.  I think this adds a lot to the flower and card.  I cut out leaves from the Royal Leaves die set from My Favorite Things and then used foil with the Mini Minc.  I love this green and gold foil.  I originally colored the leaves in the Beautiful Day set with Copics but decided the foiled ones would look better.  I embossed the sentiments with Stampendous Detail Fine Gold Embossing Powder.   This works so well for me on tiny words/letters.

I used Gina K Designs gold card stock and it is just gorgeous and such a great weight.  Inside I used a sentiment from Close To My Heart stamp set called, The Happy Couple Anniversary I believe.  I love how pretty this font is.  I usually don't use stickers but I had these 50 Years stickers and thought it would look good because the Years font is similar to the Happy Anniversary font.  I got these at a big box store.

I cut out a Scribble Rose from My Favorite Things and added a few of the foil leaves I cut out from the Royal Leaves die set.

Last of all, I used the Papertrey Ink Envelope Liner Die (LOVE THIS!) and lined with the gold card stock. How pretty is that??

This card was a lot of fun to make.  I hope you'll try to make your own stencils with acetate and your dies.  One word of advice..... I had to use my Precision Plate to get the acetate to cut right.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!


Regina

Altenew Layered Daisy Thank You Card

Hi Everybody,

I made a card that I think is so pretty I may make one for myself lol.   I love the colors in this card.  I used the Altenew layered Daisy stamp set.  I think this set was something like $4.99, well worth the money for sure.

If I went a little overboard with the sequins, it might be because I'm covering up a boo boo lol.  I'm going to also put some glossy accents on the thanks die to shine it up a bit.  Who wouldn't want to get this in the mail right?  As you can see I'm not planning on writing very much in this one. :)


Supplies Used:

• Recollections White 120# for the base
• Neenah 80# White, Papertrey Ink Berry Sorbet and Patterned Berry Sorbet Paper Pack
• Hero Arts Thanks Stamp and Die Set
• Altenew Layered Daisy Stamp Set
• I used these inks for the flowers:  bottom to top, light to dark... Tim Holtz Spun Sugar, Gina K Designs Innocent Pink, and Papertrey Ink Berry Sorbet.  
• I used these inks for the leaves:  bottom to top, light to dark... Tim Holtz Twisted Citron, Gina K Designs Jellybean Green and Tim Holtz Mowed Lawn
• Pretty Pink Posh Clear Sequins

I spent a lot of time playing with ink combinations for the different layered stamp sets I have which was actually fun to do.  Some of them surprised me looking so good and some surprised me looking so awful together. 

I don't think you can go wrong sending someone a card with the layered flowers on them.  I hope I inspired you to try them if you haven't.  Like I said the Altenew set I used has 6 stamps, 3 for flowers and 3 for leaves and is around $5.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Regina

Altenew Wishing You Stamps and Watercolor

Hi Everybody,

I did a little watercoloring today.  I used Altenew stamps called Wishing You.  This is such a great Springtime set.  I also got the matching dies.

I used Gansai Tambi watercolor paints on the hummingbird and flower and also a little of some shimmer paints by Yasutomo.  Oh, I just looked and these shimmer paints are $7.95 on Amazon, here a link to the shimmer paints.  Here is a link to the Gansai Tambi watercolor paints, 36 set. There is also a 24 color set.  I used the light blue Zig pen to make a wash background and stamped the sentiment with Memento Lilac Posies.  Added some clear Pretty Pink Posh sequins and used a Tim Holtz distressing tool to go around the edges to give them some interest.

This card is for my Mom.  I took her to the doctor yesterday and then we went to lunch and we had a great time.   I'm giving this card to her to tell her how much fun I had and love her. :)


Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!


Regina

Hello Card - Two Altenew Stamp Sets Used

Hi Everybody,

I just wanted to share a quick card that I made for someone going through a rough spell.  I hope this made her smile.  I forget about coloring my stamps with Memento Markers and stamping so that's what I did here.  You can also color your stamp with the markers and then spritz with water and stamp if you want more of a watercolor look.  

I used a hello die and sponged part of it with the same color Memento Ink as the marker I used.  Next I stamped Versamark over the hello and sprinkled sparkly embossing powder on it and heat set.  I cut out on top of fun foam and using Stick It.  

Supplies Used:

• Gina K Designs White 120# Cardstock, the purple is hers as well and I'm so sorry but she doesn't sell it currently.  It was a limited edition color a couple years ago I believe. 
• Altenew Stamps on front, Botanical Garden
• Altenew Stamps for inside, Wishing You 
• Memento Markers, Lilac Posies and Bambo Leaves
• Memento Lilac Posies Ink
• Hello Die, Lawn Fawn
• Envelope Liner Die, Papertrey Ink
• Judikins Sparkly Embossing Powder
• Versamark Ink
• Fun Foam
• Clear Sequins, Pretty Pink Posh
• Scor-Tape

If you need a quick card, pull out those Memento Markers and color your stamps.  I hope I inspired you today.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!


Regina

Altenew Layered Lily

Hi Everybody!

I've been making cards but not blogging them in the last few days, oops.  I've had some kind of sinus crud stuff going on and yesterday I got my first sinus cocktail shot!  I feel so much better today.  This must be a Southern thing because when I lived in St. Louis and asked for one, they looked at me like I was cray cray lol.

I made this card for a friend to tell her how awesome and talented she is and I know she loves Altenew Stamps so I used the Layered Lily set.  I love this set because it is so quick but so impressive like you spent a lot of time on it.  I did actually spend a lot of time in the beginning going through my inks and figuring out color combos.  If anyone is interested in what I came up with I'll be glad to share.

I meant to stamp a lily inside the card.  My hands were faster than my brain and I adhered the layer before I realized it.  I wanted it stamped off the side.  

I will list the colors I used below.  If you haven't already tried layered stamps, I highly recommend them and this set was fairly inexpensive at $15.00.  Here is a link to Altenew Layered Lily Stamp Set


Supplies Used:

• Gina K Designs Cardstocks, white 120# for base, Passionate Pink, Bubblegum Pink, and Dusty Rose
• Altenew Layered Lily Stamp Set on front of card
• Stampin' Up sentiment on inside from a set called, Botanicals for You
• From Light to Dark Inks Used:  Memento Angel Pink, Gina K Designs Bubblegum Pink, Memento Rose Bud, and Tim Holtz Picked Raspberry
• Clear Sequins, Pretty Pink Posh
• Tombo Mono Adhesive
• Ranger Multi Media Matte 

I hope you liked this card and will try some layered stamps soon! 

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Regina