Altenew December 2022 Marvelous Monthly Series & Alcohol Markers Set K Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

 

Hello Friends, and welcome to the Altenew December Marvelous Monthly Series Release! You may have come from the lovely Teresa Litchfield, but if not feel free to start at the beginning of the hop with the Altenew Blog.

There's a new set of Artist Alcohol Markers, and hooray, they include a nice selection of ORANGE! You will laugh, but out of my 150 marker collection, I only have 2 operational orange markers!! Kinda makes Fall crafting difficult!

I got to try them on the new Lotus Frame Flower and love how vibrant they are. So as not to distract from the beautiful orange, I stamped the lotus leaves on vellum and embossed them in gold.

Did you notice the 3D embossed details on the lotus?! This set also has a corresponding embossing folder! So after coloring the lotus, I held my breath, taped it inside the embossing folder where I thought the flower should line up, and sent it thru! Love how it looks in person

Here's a better look at the dimension and the vellum leaves. Also, let's take a minute with those trailing lotus roots! I added gold thread to represent what we'd see underneath the water : )

Finally, the water. I very loosely added all the blues (and a charcoal) in this Altenew Artist Markers Set K for the depths of the lake the lotus is floating in. It's great when you can work your own very simple background into a card design, and no need for an extra stamp!

I'm going to sneak in a card from a couple weeks ago so you can see the gorgeous frame that also comes in the Lotus Frame Stamp Set. What a great set - you get flowers, leaves, sentiments, and a background frame! 

My next card is from the Craft Your Life Project Kit: Watercolor Flowers. Oh boy, you really don't need to do anything fancy to this one, it's just sooooo lovely on its own. Just color the flowers with the stencil, splatter, and add your sentiments!

Speaking of sentiments, there are a million included in this set (ok, twelve) which is great because then you can add several to your card. As a recipient, I always think you're more impressed with a card when you spend more time reading it. Love that there are a variety of "headline" sentiments and "wordy" sentiments to mix and match.

I appreciate that there are lots of different opportunities to add different colors, with several parts on each stencil. It sure makes your final result pop. You can tell lots of care went into designing these!

Giveaway Prizes

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $20 gift certificate to 10 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by December 25, 2022 for a chance to win. 

 

Altenew will draw 10 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on December 27, 2022.

I'm pleased to send you to the blog of Natasha Davies who has some beautiful things to share with you!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks so much for stopping by!
- Kelly

Supplies Used (affiliate links at no additional cost to you, thanks for your support!)

Altenew Artist Markers Set K

Lotus Frame Stamp Set

Craft Your Life Watercolor Flowers

 

The Cutest Little Journal Card!

Hi Friends! I've got a super cute mini stamp set to share with you today! It's Altenew's Journal Flowers Mini Stamp Set. This set is small, inexpensive, but very versatile, since you can stamp whatever sentiment you need on the open left page.

No more wondering where to place the sentiment, hooray!!

Then to kick it up a notch I made it 3d! Just cut a few more journals out with the Altenew Journal Flowers Die, score in the center, and bend up. TBH, this was also motivated by the fact that I didn't really like the first coloring of the flowers (you can see these "inside" the journal) so instead of tossing them I used them as a hardly seen layer.

Anyone recognize the cute black background with the gold highlights? It's the pretty tissue Altenew uses to pack your order with! Save and repurpose those beauties!!

To improve the dimensionality, I added a textured ribbon down the middle, over where the stamped ribbon is. Super easy, but a nice detail.

To make the flowers pop on the right (especially the white daisy), I colored all the negative space with gray. All in all, I think this card-within-a-card turned out pretty cute. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!
- Kelly

Supplies Used (affiliate links used at no additional cost to you, thanks so much!)

Altenew Journal Flowers

Altenew Journal Flowers Die

Artists' Gouache Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

Hello Friends! It's not every day that a new product line comes out, so I'm excited to be a part of this blog hop debuting Altenew's new Artist's Gouache Set!

I have to admit, I was a little intimidated at the thought of playing around with a new-to-me media, that comes in a tube no less. They look so "artsy"! But I'm happy to report they are very manageable and fun to play around with!  

You may have come from the delightful Virginia Lu, but if not feel free to start at the beginning with the Altenew Blog.

These cards are really a tale of two cities, with one being somewhat involved and detailed, and one being very loose and free. Let's take a look at the detailed one first!

First, I must say how fancy I felt squeezing the gouache out of the tubes, lol! Then it was a matter of figuring out the right consistency and amount of water to add (like a thicker soup). I started with masking off the margins of my panel and applying a wash to the background. Because the gouache is quickly reactivated with water, it was easy to make this gradient wash without worrying about moving fast. 

Then I stamped the Paint-a-Flower: Rose on the left and right and started applying color to the flowers. This is where I had a lot of fun experimenting with how to use the color. My intention for this panel was just to practice and learn how to use the gouache, but I ended up keeping it as the final card.

I took the opportunity to mount the panel on a coordinating colored piece of cardstock I folded into an A2 card.

My observations, as a complete beginner to this medium, are to take advantage of the fact that unlike watercolors, the gouache doesn't bleed as easily when it touches already painted areas. This is helpful when painting sections of petals, especially for impatient artists like me.

 

Also, it's convenient to know that when it dries out on your palette it's easy to reactivate with a damp brush and continue painting.

The next card is a quick one that creates an awesome tie-dye effect! I used the Brick Rosette Builder Stencil to put directly on the card, and then just painted the gouache around each circle. 

The gouache that pools under the stencil is just what I needed to create the loose tie-dye effect. It blends a bit with the other colors, but it's not all over the place.

This is a simple design, with just a sentiment added on top to finish, so it works for many different occasions.

My intention was to stencil several of these in cool colors on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock and cut them into quarters. I'm in desperate need of male birthday cards since I have boys! The speed and level of interest on these are the perfect candidate to have teen boy birthday cards ready.

 

Artists' Gouache Set

If you're unsure about using gouache because you've never worked with it before, I'd say go for it! It comes out to about $3 per tube, which is the same or a tad cheaper than a mini ink cube. 

Giveaway Prizes:

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a *$100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $20 gift certificates to 10 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 12/12/2022 for a chance to win. 

Altenew will draw 10 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 12/14/2022.

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

I'm happy to send you to the super talented LauraJane, who has some gorgeous projects you must see!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks for stopping by!
- Kelly 

Supplies Used (affiliate links at no additional cost to you, thanks so much!)

Artist's Gouache Paint Set

Brick Rosette Builder Stencil

Paint-a-Flower: Rose

 

New Christmas Release from Colorado Craft Company!

 

Hi Friends! Welcome to the Colorado Craft Company Christmas blog hop to celebrate the new release of Kris Laurent Christmas stamp and die sets!

You may have come from the blog of Kassi Hulet, but if not feel free to start at the beginning with Adrienne Kennedy CCC.

I've used a few snow globes before, but I love that the new Snow Globe Bear set has several cute little critters (see below), and a perfect splattering of heavy snow. Quite the flurries going on in there!

Snow Globe Bear

I stamped the snow on top of the adorable mama and baby deer, and wiped off most of the flakes that landed on the face before embossing.

For the snow covered ground, I used a piece of fabric lace (from the giant lace tablecloth with a stain I scored at a garage sale for 50 cents!)

There are a few different sentiments to use from this set, including one that's holiday-themed, winter-themed, and sympathy-themed. Did you notice the customizable plaque on the base of the globe? All the numbers for the next 8 years are included to date your globes. How fun would it be to make a series of these for ornaments and date them each year?! The reindeer and bear are indeed sweet, but after you're done using them, pick something else from your existing stash and put it in the globe!

 

One additional card ... this one uses the fire place stamp and die from Knitting Bear, and the stockings and sentiment from Stockings Mini. LOVE that large and long sentiment! You could even stick a large MERRY CHRISTMAS on top of that sentiment and use it more for a background.

Eeep! Those tiny stockings are adorable. They're too small for me to consider cutting them out myself, so it's a good thing they offer dies as an option.

I appreciate that the fireplace die has a lot of debossing details - the mortar between the bricks, the wood grain, the arch. It adds a lot, especially if you're not embossing the stamped image.

Prizes! 

There is one HUGE complete bundle giveaway of everything in this release!! To be entered, just use my, or anyone else's affiliate links to make your purchases. You will be emailed if you win.

We are also still doing a giveaway of one stamp set of your choice from comments left at each blog, including mine! More comments, more chances to win!! Please check the Colorado Craft blog, or sign up for their mailing list, for the list of winners. 

Your next stop on the hop is the uber talented Kelly Taylor!

 

Thanks,
- Kelly

 

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

 

Snow Globe Bear

Knitting Bear

Stockings Mini

 

 

 

 

Trick or Treat - New Colorado Craft Company is Here!!

Hello Folks! Before sharing my projects with the new Colorado Craft Company Halloween line, I wanted to share my sympathies for all Floridians. It's been a long day watching news coverage of Hurricane Ian, and for those directly or indirectly impacted, you have my prayers! It was a bucket list item to get to the keys, and we finally made it early this year. We've enjoyed previous vacations to Ft Meyers, Sanibel/Captiva, Daytona Beach, Orlando, Miami, and it's hard thinking of what's happened to the land and people there. Lots of love also to those helping with the rescue/rebuilding operations. 

If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to share my cards now ...

 
Whenever I see a new Big & Bold set, I immediately think shaped cards. There's just something about a card not being a 5.5x4.25 rectangle that makes it extra special. So fun to put these shaped cards together that I made a whole set of them, and am thinking about keeping them all for Halloween decorations!

The shaped pumpkin card is made by cutting a second pumpkin in charcoal, scoring the top of the second pumpkin, and then adhering to the main pumpkin above the folded line. Love that there are dies that cut the insides of the eyes out to make things easy ... interior cuts are always a challenge to get smooth!

Here you can see a side view. Also take a look at the Big Bold Black Cat 1) you can see how he stands, by folding a strip of paper into a box that pops out, and 2) what a fun sentiment to put on the back of your card! The moon above is embossed in silver so it shines.

Love how easy these are to make! And for a tiny bit more effort, paper piecing can really have a big impact ... 

 

I paper pieced the piercing green eyes on the cat,

paper pieced the striped stems,

 

and paper pieced the insides of the jack-o-lantern. Love how vintage he looks! This would be a great shaker too!

 
This card uses the Big Bold Scary Pumpkin Stamp Set. Instead of stamping the full pumpkin like the first set of cards, I just stamped a bit of the top pumpkin, made a mask, and then stamped two more pumpkins behind. 

These sets come with some fabulous sentiments! I had extra Halloween Greetings, so I used them to double and triple up.

I'm obsessed with the gray/blue pumpkins, even have them stacked in a few pumpkin totem poles at my front door. I colored these very simply and let the colors shine.

Prizes! 

There is one HUGE complete bundle giveaway of everything in this release!! To be entered, just use my, or anyone else's affiliate links to make your purchases. You will be emailed if you win.

We are also still doing a giveaway of one stamp set of your choice from comments left at each blog. More comments, more chances to win!! Please check the Colorado Craft blog, or sign up for their mailing list, for the list of winners. 

Your next stop on the hop is the uber talented Kelly Taylor!

 

Thanks,
- Kelly

 

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

Big Bold Black Cat Dies

Big Bold Black Cat Stamp Set

Big Bold Scary Pumpkin Dies

Big Bold Scary Pumpkin Stamp Set