Thursday, January 9, 2025

Altenew January Release Blog Hop - Lots of Prizes and Giveaways!

 


Hi Friends! First, my thoughts and prayers go out to all the people of Southern California. So many have had their entire lives ripped away from them by the wildfires plaquing their communities. I'm hoping the lack of winds today will help the firefighters contain the fires. 

That being said, I'm so excited to join all these talented crafters for the Altenew January Release Blog Hop! You may have come from the one-and-only Cathy Zielske, but if not feel free to start your hop at Altenew



There's a lot I'm anxious to share so let's get right to it!


The Craft Your Life Project Kit: Butterfly Garden has this amazing set of stencils that creates a beautiful collection of butterflies, foliage, and dots. 



There's also a die to cut these all out at the same time, which I've done for a subsequent card, but for this card I chose to feature them all uncut as a patterned paper. 


I did cut a set of butterflies from plain white cardstock, and used one to cover the middle butterfly, bending the wings up so you can still get a peek at the colors underneath. 


Ombre enamel dots down the buterfly's body match the ink colors.



These are some of the butterflies I cut out from that large sheet, flying out of the stamped mason jar. 


I like that the die cuts pretty close to the image. 


The fancy gold-embossed HOPE sentiment is from this Butterfly Garden set as well.


Here's another version of that card, but with a vellum mason jar, and solid cardstock butterflies. The background is a bit smoother (almost like cement), as I inked onto the dry side of the card instead of the wet side in the prior example. What a great sentiment!!


Coordinating with the Butterfly Garden, there's a stand alone Serene Garden embossing folder that has an incredible amount of detail in the main butterfly, as well as some florals. It's all you really need for a card!


Before embossing, I inked up the folder with warm gray and was able to really highlight the embossed images in white. 


Another useful set is the Have Faith Word Die - bonus that EVERYTHING is connected, even the dot on the "i" yay! 


This Garden Bench set is just so adorable, and the best thing is that even with all of the detail on the bench with the wood slats and the wrought iron scroll frame, there are only three pieces to cut and assemble. Thoughtfully designed!


This is one of the sentiments that comes with the mini stamp set, and I think it's a sweet way to send your sympathies to someone. 


Finally, the Carnation Layering Dye Set really impressed me. Aside from the ease of cutting the petals and leaves all at one time, there are some nice debossed areas in the middle of the petals and veins of the leaves to give extra interest.


I cut all petal layers out of a light pink cardstock and then inked the different layers. Extra foliage from the Butterfly Garden are tucked into the grouping. 


To balance the large black sentiment on top, and the thin black secondary sentiment, I wanted some black on the bottom of the card too, but black cardstock was feeling a bit flat. So I went into my basement storage area and grabbed some black lace. Perfect!

Giveaway Info:

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $50 gift certificate to 4 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by January 15th for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 5 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on January 17th, 2025.

The winner of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog. 

I'm now pleased to send you to the next stop on this hop with Pam Boedeker! If you need to zip to anywhere else in the hop the master list is below:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter


Thanks for stopping by!
- Kelly


Supplies Used (affiliate links if you like what you see, I appreciate your support!!)

Carnation Layering Die Set

Garden Bench Die and Mini Stamp Set

Craft Your Life Kit: Butterfly Garden

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Altenew July 2024 Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)


Hello Friends! Oh boy what a fun July Release this is from Altenew, with a little bit of everything - stamps, stencils, press plates, embossing folders, and even a new set of inks! I really took to this release and have A TON to show you, so let's get to it!!

You may have come from the sweetest ever Hannelie, but if not feel free to start the hop at the Altenew Blog


As soon as I saw this Stencil Art: White Cap Peonies stencil I KNEW it was going to be FAB-U-LOUS!! And the first time I inked it up it did NOT disappoint!



The giant size and the multiple colors just demand attention! It's made with 6 different stencils so there's a lot of variation you can add. And not even a stamp in sight. 



The Flutter and Bloom Set is an absolutely massive 8x11" set that also has tons of possibilities. The flowers stamped on the card base are sweet, but hello those butterflies are super elegant and delightful! 



After coloring them with the stencils (love all the different color options on these!) I bent the wings up from the bodies for some cheap and easy dimension for the card. 


This set is the Tangerine Grove Set and I like that in addition to the tangerines it features blooms, many different leaves (with varied colors) and the branches. It's all those details I think that make it lush. 



There are a lot of different sentiments to pick from, including this gold one. The black raised sentiment is from an awesome embossing folder that's coming up : )


Here are two different looks for the same Inked Poppies press plate - one high on contrast and drama for a modern feel, the other a bit more weathered for a vintage feel. 



What grabs me with this set is all the detailed lines making beautiful impressions when they are pressed in the paper - you just want to run your fingers over it all. 


There's another floral press plate in this release that I think deserves some attention - the Blossoming Bouquet Set. This one has a coordinating stencil to aid in coloring it. I felt like mixing it up a bit and stamped it in the new Coral Bliss from the Tea Party Cube Set



The HELLO sentiment, which also comes with this set, and the new raised embossed sentiment, which is still coming up, are bordered by an older Deco Cover Die set that I honestly get so much use out of. 


This card was so fun, as it's a giant mash-up of sets from this release! We've got the previous Blossoming Bouquet Set in the background (stamped in green this time, instead of coral), 


more of those raised sentiment strips, all cut from a massive Raised Sentiments Embossing Folder which produces sentiments for days (check out the piles of sentiments I've got waiting in Theo wings on the left edge of this next photo!!)



And finally, the star of this show, the best value Mini Delight Live in the Moment Set! How adorable is that tiny clock with the silver bells?! and the subtly-stamped rose on the face of the clock (which actually comes with this set as well, for even more value)! And the adhesive gem detail for the middle of the hands!!

You can also see a bit better in this photo how the sentiment is raised from the embossing folder. I ran the sentiment strip across a white ink pad, and then ended up using a white gel pen to make the white show up a bit more. 


Two different ways to use the Blossoming Bouquet Set!


Finally, let’s see two of the new sets of ink colors - a Warm Gray Mini Cube Set that makes the leaves fad into the background in the best possible way, and one of my favorite color hues of all time, a handful of blushes from the Tea Party Cube Set



I could just swim in those melon beauties!!

Whew! Hope you liked going through the new July Release with me, and maybe got a few ideas for yourself! 


Giveaway Prizes

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $50 gift certificate to 4 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by July 16, 2024 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 5 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on July 18, 2024.


*The winner of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog. 

Your next stop on this hop is Maria!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks for stopping by!
- Kelly

Supplies used (affiliate links, thanks for your support!):

Blossoming Bouquet Set

Inked Poppies Set

Raised Sentiments Embossing Folder

Stencil Art: White Cap Peonies
Live in the Moment Set

Tangerine Grove Set

Stencil Art: White Cap Peonies

Flutter and Bloom Set
Warm Gray Mini Cube Set
Tea Party Cube Set