Altenew Build-A-Flower: Hellebore Release Blog Hop + Giveaway

Hi Folks! Back to school, back to the craft room!! Amiright?!? So excited to kick off being back in the craft room with a fabulous Altenew Blog Hop ... the latest Build-a-Flower Hellebore is just gorgeous! You may have just come from the blog of Reiko Tsuchida, but if not you are welcome to start at the beginning with the Altenew Card Blog.

This new set has two flowers, one bud, and three different leaves so you can really vary the bouquets you create. Let's take a look!

I wasn't familiar with the Hellebore, so I did a google image search and found these flowers are usually white, or really dark reds and purples.

So glad, as I normally would not have gone that dark, and I'm pretty happy with the result. It reminds me of a vintage seed packet, especially since the reds are a little more muted vs. vibrant.

After stamping the flowers, I went back and added details and shading with colored pencils. A first for me! Yay! I shaded on each end of the petals, and then added shading and dots to the centers.

Some shading for the background, with a few gold spatters, and a b&w sentiment. The flowers are so pretty that if you just put several on a card, you know it's going to look good!

A quick word about the leaves ... unless I have an efficient way to stamp them, I tend to get lazy and skip the leaves. What a shame! Once they're on the card I think they add so much to it. So one way I cut down on time is to arrange the first solid layer of leaf stamps on a stamping block, and stamp them on a scrap piece of paper. Then, on the paper, I arrange the second layer of leaf stamps face down. When they are in place, I put another stamping block on top of them. Same for the third layer of stamps. I arrange them face down where they belong on the stamped piece of paper, and put a stamping block on top. Now I'm ready to stamp three times, and have three triple-layer leaves!

Not pictured are my dies, which I also arrange on top of the stamped piece of paper and tape together. Then I can cut all three leaves at the same time.

Back to the cards, my second project is a beautiful "vase" of flowers. I say "vase" because I've totally cheated, and really my vase is nothing more than a gray rectangle! But I think it gives a modern edge to the card.

The background is from the Molded Lines stencil. The sentiment is from the Pen Sketch Mandala.

I love having the buds in this set. Sometimes you want to add another flower, but it would take up too much room. Like on this card, I originally had two blooms, wanted a third to have an odd number, but there wasn't any more room. Three little buds were the perfect size, and they also added up to an odd number. It was also another great way to get a darker shade of red in there.

Since this was a more modern card, I didn't shade the petals with colored pencils like the other card, but I still added some details to the centers.

This is such a great set for creating big, beautiful bouquets. I really like that you can use it to make a traditionally beautiful card, or a more modern, clean card. 

If you're not sure you have enough shades of each ink color for the Build a Flower set, you can also purchase the set with coordinating ink cubes at a 5% discount.

Subscription Plan:
There is also a monthly subscription plan for the Build a Flower sets! When signed up, you are guaranteed a spot in the monthly Build a Flower releases (which often sell out) and will receive the stam and coordinating die at a special discounted price ($35.00 -> $29.99). See Altenew site for further details.

Prizes: To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $30 gift certificate to 6 lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog for a chance to win.

We'll also draw a winner to receive a $15 gift certificate from the comments left on each designer's blog. All winners will be announced on the Altenew blogs on 9/7/2019.

Now I am very happy to send you to the blog of my dear friend, Virginia Lu, who no doubt has put her heart into something very special to share with you!

 
Thanks so much for stopping by. If you enjoyed your time here, I'd welcome you to follow me on Instagram for all my latest projects!

-Kelly

Supplies Used (with affiliate links at no additional cost to you. Thanks so much for your support!!):

BAF - Hellebore