Altenew 2nd Anniversary Blog Hop

 
Hi Folks! I can clearly remember Altenew's very first release two years ago, and aside from figuring it was going to be a pretty darn successful company with Tasnim and Jen at the helm, my thoughts were solidly confirmed when I saw the wonderfully detailed and unique stamp sets, especially the painted flowers and sketchy cities America sets.

Fast forward two years, and a wild amount of successful releases, and I'm super excited to be celebrating Altenew's 2nd Anniversary along side some pretty darn amazing designers!

For today's birthday celebration, I'm going to be playing with Altenew's Sketchy Landmarks set, which features a wonderfully detailed Westminster Abbey. I was so inspired, I ended up making FIVE cards, some of which are spinoffs of each other. Let's get started!



I started off using the cathedral as a background by turning it around to fill in the white space, like a jigsaw puzzle. The focal point cathedral is stamped on heavy weight paper that's been saturated with water. Then holding it vertically, I dripped watercolor at the edges and let it run down the image. To enhance the rose window in the center I filled it in with a white gel pen. I neglected to leave room for the sentiment, so it ended up going right across the image on two strips.



For the next card I went with the same background-filling formula, but this time I wanted to make the cathedrals pop more by loosely coloring the negative spaces. To get an old-world look, the stamp is pressed lightly so some areas wouldn't transfer ink. I like how different sections are missing from each image. This style seems to fit with the more somber sentiment of the card. And this time, I remembered to allow room for the sentiment! A few of the Vintage Flowers in soft pinks draw attention to the sentiment.



The third card uses those Vintage Flowers as a base for a fairy-tale, floating castle. Sequins are all from Little Things by Lucy's Cards.



The castle is white embossed on vellum to enhance the dreamy feeling, and to let those gorgeous flowers show through.

Now let's try a little 3D action ...



To make this dimensional cathedral, I white embossed the cathedral four times. The two sides are actually just the middle sections cut away from the cathedral. For the back cathedral, I stamped the image in black ink so you could still see some details (more-so in person than in the photo here).




To give the illusion of height I stamped the tops of the trees from Shadow Play on each side.

To mail the card you just fold the cathedral to the side.



For the last card, I had fun with the cathedral AND the sentiment. The first part of the sentiment is on the flag waving over the castle (wrapped around a colored toothpick, with a ribbon flying in the wind). The second part of the sentiment is scattered in the stripes of the patterned paper on the base of the card.

The cathedral is again stamped and fussy cut four times, but this time different parts of the cathedral have been cut away to expose various layers. Since each layer is mounted on fun foam, the thicknesses are easier to see.

This one folds flat too, although the thickness of the fun foam will make mailing a little more difficult. I usually bring my card to a wedding, so that shouldn't be an issue as long as I have it in an envelope.

The many towers and detailing make this particular stamp great for the foam layering technique. It really comes to life!

And there you have it! So much fun playing with this set.

To add to the celebration, these fine companies have all donated prizes, as well as several special offers from Altenew:

 

Altenew Special Offers

• First 100 orders : 1 free mini stamp set (Starting April 7th at 9:00 AM EST)
• Orders over $75 : 1 free mini stamp set (Now through Sunday, April 10, 2016)

Prizes

Leave comments along the way for the opportunity to win one of THREE prize packs valued at over $100 from Altenew! There are 8 awesome companies who are celebrating with us, and they are offering the following prizes:

• Pretty Pink Posh : $30 Gift Certificate
• WOW! Embossing Powder : $30 Prize Pack
• Simon Says Stamp : $30 Gift Certificate
• Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L : $30 Prize Pack
• Ellen Hutson : $50 Gift Certificate
• Freckled Fawn : Gypsy Kit valued at $27
• My Sweet Petunia : Mini MISTI
• StampNation : Three 3 Month Subscriptions

Be sure to leave comments on each stop by Tuesday, April 12, 2016 at 11:59 PM EST for a chance to win! 13 winners will be chosen at random from the collective blogs in the hop list and will be announced on the Altenew blog on April 14th.

Your next stop is the fabulous Isha Gupta! 
 
If you haven't already, be sure to check out the Altenew blog for the last two days to see the rest of the festivities. Inspiration overload!

Altenew 
Laura Bassen 
Therese Calvird 
Ellen Hutson
Amy Gray
 Joni Andaya
Freckled Fawn
Debby Hughes
Lydia Evans
My Sweet Petunia 
Kelly Griglione <-- almost there, you are here!

Isha Gupta

Key Supplies:
The following supplies have been used to create the projects in this post. Where available I use affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks!

Altenew Clear Stamps, Sketchy Landmarks

Altenew Clear Stamps, Vintage Flowers

Altenew Clear Stamps, Shadow Play

Winnie & Walter Share the Love Week, Featuring Pinkfresh Studio

Hi Folks! This week we're sharing the love by combining Winnie & Walter products with the new Felicity line from Pinkfresh Studio. Wouldn't you know, they work so well together! Let's take a look...
 

  
We started with an amazing set of Felicity stickers (puffy, wood veneer, washi and paper), die cuts, a 6x6 paper pad, and a set of stamps (thanks Pinkfresh!!)



This card uses several Pinkfresh Felicity stamps: the houses (love how the tire tread pattern goes through them, and look ... it even matches the patterned paper!!), the "life is beautiful" secondary sentiment, the washi tape patterns below the houses, the flower cluster outlines, and the birds on wires on the card base. This card also has Felicity patterned paper on the base, as well as a "smile today" word sticker. The Winnie & Walter elements include the panel and the butterfly from Essentials: Audrey cutaways, and the "hello" from The big, the Bold and the Happy cutaways.
    

 
While I'm obsessed with using sequins on almost every card, it's nice to accent it with something else for a change, like this tiny wood veneer asterisk.
 

 
I also made a scrapbook page documenting one of my bucket list items for this year ... learning how to shoot photos in manual mode. It's been ridiculous. I've taken thousands of photos since my kids were born 11 years ago, bought a really nice camera and lens, use the photos in scrapbook pages and on canvases in my home, and all this time I've only shot in automatic mode. It was a disaster any time I tried one of the manual modes, and my kids were never one to sit patiently while I fiddle around with camera settings. So this year, one of my besties gave me a spot in a photography class. Life changing!! From that moment on, I've vowed that I will never again shoot in automatic mode. It's been a little rocky, but I feel myself getting better each time I pick up the camera (which usually is multiple times a day.)


  
The title is Winnie & Walter In a Word: Hello cutaway, paired with a banner from The Big, the Bold and Extras cutaways. The camera in the foreground is from one of my favorite older sets The Write Stuff: Picture Perfect, with an inset of patterned paper from the Felecity line. Behind the title I have two more sheets from the 6x6 patterned paper line.

The bird and phrase are Felicity die cuts (love that there is no work required to use them, I'm so used to stamping everything!) I stamped the camera bleeding off the right edge of the layout.

 
The birds on wires stamp was fun to use at the indention of my paragraph, and tied that section in with the bird pattern paper, the bird die cut, and the bird camera. It's hard to see, but above the photo of me shooting our models, I stamped a tiny "you + me" from The Write Stuff: Picture Perfect, because as much joy as I got from learning about my camera in the all-day class, it was also amazing to be sharing that experience with Brenda.

 
Here's one of the Felicity squiggle die cuts, layered over the washi tape stamp.  Such great space-fillers!
 
Are you ready for some challenge fun?! You can make anything inspired by the projects featured in the current day's post, with two $25 gift certificates up for grabs! There are also 2 sets of  the Pinkfresh Felicity collection packs being given away. Check it out all the details at Winnie & Walter!
   
Thanks for stopping by to check out my card and layout : )

Kelly

Two Interlocking Hearts = 3D, Mailable Card

Hi Folks! Last week I showed a 3D diamond on a card base, and today I'm featuring a 3D heart that IS the card base! Check out the details and additional pictures on the Winnie & Walter blog.

 

The dimension you get from the rounded, faceted heart with the solid heart inside makes me so happy ... I've had this one on my desk for quite some time now : )

Thanks for stopping by!
- Kelly

Calling All Sistah's Blog Hop - My Personal 30 in 30 Days Challenge

Hi Folks! For this month's breast cancer hop I really wanted to do something that mattered. Knowing myself, I probably wouldn't get around to sending a "check yourself" card to anyone (I am so behind on the birthdays as it is!!) I also started thinking of how I remember to check myself. A long time ago someone told me to put a sticky note reminder on my box of tampons. A place that I without a doubt visit every 28 days.

That's it! I wanted to share that tip with others.


  
Instead of a sticky note (c'mon, we're crafters for Heaven's sake!!) I die cut the Hope Fri-Die, added the reminder messages from the Calling All Sistahs stamp set, and attached a clothespin to the back of it all.



Now the recipient can clip this to her tampon box and have a pretty, visual reminder to check herself. If the recipient no longer has a need for such boxes like this, she can clip it to anything inside her linen closet, or anywhere else that she'd see on a monthly basis.

I love that these are SO EASY and SO QUICK to make. I could whip out a ton of these!
 

 
Looking at my calendar, I figured I would see at least 30 different women between now and April 17th. So I issued myself a challenge: Pass these out to 30 beautiful women in my life in the next 30 days. I have a feeling this will be easier than I think. Tomorrow I'm hosting 10 women for a bible group. There are PTO meetings, afternoons in the park, neighbors to see, Bunco night, so many different places filled with women. Some are my best friends, some I've only recently met, but it doesn't really matter because we're all in this together!!



Let's go get something started!!



The next lovely lady in this hop is Laura. If you'd like to start at the beginning, hop on over to CASual Fridays Stamps.

Now don't forget to check yourself!
-Kelly

 
I'm happy to share that CASual Fridays Stamps is now an official sponsor of National Breast Cancer Foundation! They will be receiving the 50% profit donation from this collection for 2016.
  Michele will be giving (3) $25 gift certificates to CFS randomly from comments left on all the blogs so it's important for you to leave some love on all the blogs to maximize your chance to win.
Winners will be announced on CFS blog on March 20th.

Multi Faceted & Multi Dimensional Goodness

Hi Folks! I've been playing around with the Winnie & Walter faceted cutaways that were just released, and am excited to share this 3D project on the Winnie & Walter blog today! Feel free to head over if you'd like more details.

 

I have another 3D card (folding flat, of course!) to share next week. Stay tuned!

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

Woodgrain and Flowers ... Related to Candles?

Hi folks! Candle flames everywhere are everywhere in my stamps this week. Earlier my flame came from a knot in woodgrain, and this time my flame comes from ...



a stylized flower from the CASual Fridays Mon Ami set (the smaller one on the left). I colored the image with copics and then cut the sections apart to use on top of the candles.

I do have actual candle flame stamps, but I went with these because 1) I like how they aren't all the same shape, especially since I am using a lot of them together, and 2) their waviness gives the sense of a flickering action.

  

This card is over at the CAS-ual Fridays Stamps blog today if you'd like further details. Feel free to use my code "KELLY2016" which will save you 15% off any purchases at CAS-ual Fridays Stamps.

Thanks for looking!
-Kelly

Last Call to Join Me Over the Edge

Hi Folks! It's been great seeing so many of you playing with the Winnie & Walter Belated 2nd Birthday Challenges! Just wanted to remind you that this is the last day to link up your projects. With a $75 gift certificate up for grabs at EACH of the 10 challenges, there's a lot to gain here!

Here's a card that I didn't post with my Over the Edge Challenge since I liked the other two better. But it's still worth sharing! I gave this card to our neighbors for the enormous tray of goodies they gave us at Christmas, which is why I used the houses to create a neighborhood on the card. Sometimes I tend to skip the smaller stamps in a set, like these evergreen trees, but whenever I use them I always think it would not look the same without them. Also interesting to note, the sun's rays are from the Christmas Peppermint Zone Creative Screening. Love getting more use out of holiday supplies!

Good luck to those who entered the challenges!! For those who haven't, you still have a few hours : )

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly

Supplies:

Sentiment - Kindness with Evelin T Designs 

Houses, trees, sun - Our Town

Sun rays - Peppermint Zone