Hi Lovelies!
I'm back with another blog hop post as a guest designer for Altenew! Hopefully you made it here from my mixed hero Tania Ahmed's blog and please be sure to visit Kelly Griglione's blog next.
Frankly, when I first saw the Beauty of the Season release, I was overwhelmed with all the pretty Fall goodies. I can't wait to share what I've come up with, but as always, don't forget to stay tuned for a Special Offer and Giveaway!
I have 3 cards and 2 Holiday projects to share with you today, so strap in for oodles of crafty goodness!
Card 1: True Friends are Everything
It was hard to make a choice about what to experiment with first. As usual, I am a sucker for flowers, stamp-layering and still determined to hang onto my Summer colors, so I dove head first into Positive Vibes layering stamp set.
Tip: Though I went the traditional route of the stamp layering process, I think that this set easily lends itself to coloring with markers or watercolors, if you select the flower outline image from the bundle pictured below:
Sometimes I leave stamp layering projects for days when I am feeling energetic. The thing that I love about this set though, is that the flowers are presented in a cluster and did you notice that each cluster (except the outline) is labeled A1, A2, B1, B2 etc.? This make it goof-proof in understanding the order in which to stamp the layers. If that does not thrill you, then get a load of the layering guide!
I stuck with the foliage colors from the layering guide, but went my own way for the petals! Altenew Crisp Dye Ink colors: Sea Breeze, Aqualicious (colors linked in Supplies section).
Feeling confident, I stamped two clusters and die-cut them with the accompanying Positive Vibes die that you can get as part of the above pictured bundle at a 5% discount.
A neutral card base allows such a bright bloom to stand out, so I chose grey cardstock from my stash and paired with my Altenew Dainty Swiss Dots background stamp in Silver Lake Crisp Dye Ink.
I turned my clusters horizontally and made a "flower crown" for my card. LOL
Honestly it was hard to pick from the 12 gorgeous sentiments in the Positive Vibes set, so many encouraging messages to choose from!!!
After way too much overthinking, a hefty ~1" black cardstock strip for the "True friends are Everything" sentiment finishes off this cool summery card. I hope you'll give this a whirl!
Card 2: Hello, I am here for you friend
Though I am reluctant to let go of Summer, the Grape Leaves Stamp Set brings classic Fall foliage that is hard to resist.
This set comes in a bundle (as shown) with matching stencil and dies, but for this card, I focused on the stamps first.
Tip: When my creativity needs a nudge, I find a "rainbow". Here I selected a Fall rainbow in Altenew Crisp Dye Ink colors: Midnight Violet, Vineyard Berry, Autumn Blaze, Warm Sunshine and Shadow Creek (colors linked in Supplies section).
With the rainbow idea in hand, I wanted the solid leaves to form a trail up the card from bottom left to top right. These leaves are generously-sized, so I choose a 5"x7" card base to make this idea work.
Tip: Though sometimes I can eyeball whether a card element will work, I chose to lay out the stamps on the card base, in an approximation of where they would be stamped, so that I could figure out spatially what worked.
I am especially talented at wasting paper, so this helps reduce the amount of "craft room fails". Happy that my idea should work, I got to stamping my rainbow using 5 solid leaf images.
To "increase the pretty", I then heat embossed 3 outline images in gold that overlapped with the solid grape leaves.
Adding the "Hello" sentiment in jet black finished this easy card.
Card 3: Happy Thanksgiving
Since we are friends, can I share? I am always shy and worried about my coloring. Why? Because I can be lazy and since coloring doesn't come naturally to me, I have to work a little harder, think about it, plan and test my color palettes whenever I am coloring with markers, pencils, paint, ink etc.
But looking at what magic can happen, don't you want to color this Autumn Bounty Stamp Set too?
I used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens here, but now that I finally treated myself to a set of Altenew's Artist Markers, I can't wait to try them out.
Alternatives: For this image, I think the colors in the Year Round Color bundle of Artist Markers would work well. For those of you who like to watercolor, I would encourage you to try Altenew's Watercolor Brush Pens. The Autumn Festival Set of Watercolor Brush Pen's would also be great for this card!
I wanted to keep the entire card about the glorious pumpkin floral diecut, so I grabbed the Grapes Leaves stencil that coordinates with the previous set and inked a subtle leaf background.
With that, it was time for a little embellishment and a sentiment. You are spoiled for choice with the 24 word/sentiments in the Autumn Bounty set, but a Thanksgiving feast was on my mind, so I went for the obvious. LOL.
I hope there is room in your shopping list for Enamel Dots, they come in super handy as a nice touch to complete a card. ALTERNATIVES: I also think that the Tropical Forest greens would work well here if you have that or like it more.
ARE YOU READY FOR PROJECTS?
Project 1: Autumn Blessings Placeholder Greeting
I clearly have food on the brain! I don't pull out my fancy plates very often, but my family will tell you that I am overly fond of a good "table-scape". :-)
As a little girl, my task would be setting the table and my youngest Auntie would occasionally draw pretty place-cards, which I thought were the bees knees.
Instead of directing where people sit this year, I thought it might be fun for everyone to get a little message welcoming them to the table.
I stamped and embossed the Leaf Frame image also from the Autumn Bounty set on Kraft cardstock. You can try Altenew's Antique Gold Embossing Powder for this.
Do you have colored pencils? I dug mine out and chose a few greens, yellows, oranges, deep reds and purples and filled the leaves with rich color. No skill required, it does not matter what brand and you don't have to be careful about adding layers delicately, just have fun and fill it in.
I created a little 'tent-shaped"prop in the back by folding a 1.5" x 3" strip of cardstock in half (along the 3" side) and adhering one half to the back of my diecut leaf frame.
Do you have time for one more project?
Project 2: Cardinal Holiday Gift Tags
My Nana always made Christmas special for me growing up in a thousand little ways It's amazing how your memories influence what important to you in life. I think that how you give is as important as what you give. Not in terms of value, but caring and thoughtfulness.
As a crafter, carefully wrapping and decorating a gift is a joy! I initially had a card in mind for these cardinals but was more inspired to create some tags.
The tag idea allowed me to explore two amazing sets from this release: Holiday Tag Sentiments Bundle and Sweet Tweetings Stamp Set. Both come with matching dies!
You know that I have a special place in my heart for stamp-layering right? The Season's Tweetings Stamp Set was another opportunity for me to create color combos that do and don't exist in nature (hence my blue cardinal). LOL
(Random Info from Google: Did you know that it is possible to have a yellow cardinal?
I made a beautiful red cardinal on an A2 sized cardstock using the layering guide above and then a blue cardinal with Crisp Dye Inks in: Sea Breeze, Aqualicious and Teal Cave (colors linked in Supplies section).
The accent snowflakes on the blue tag and both of those gorgeous holiday sentiments are from the Holiday Tags Sentiments Stamp Set.
Tip: I diecut the Cardinals using the Holiday Tags Die Set once I was done with stamping the birds and then I added decorative details and sentiments, so that they would fit in the right places on the tag.
Some bling and ribbon from my stash finished these off and they are ready for gifting!
As promised, see details below about a special offer, the Giveaway and even more inspiration along the Blog Hop!
Special Offer:
To celebrate Beauty of the Season release, Altenew is running a free gift promotion for a limited time. Here are THREE ways to get a FREEBIE to kickstart your creativity!
Get a FREE brand new Beauty of the Season Stamp & Die Release Inspiration Booklet (worth $5.99) with every order of high-value Summer Nights Release Bundles. Shop HERE! *Exclusions apply.
Get a FREE brand new Online Cardmaking Class with every order from the new Beauty of the Season Stamp & Die Release collection from 9/10/2020 through 9/13/2020. Shop HERE!
Get a FREE brand new Beauty of the Season Stamp & Die Release Mini Inspiration Booklet with every order from 9/10/2020 through 9/12/2020. Shop HERE!
Giveaway Prizes:
To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 3 lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog by 9/15/2020 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 on the blog hop list below. All winners will be announced on the Altenew Winners Page on 09/18/2020.
Blog Hop Order:
Be sure to hop along and get inspired by the work of these fabulous designers:
SUPPLIES:
I listed the products that I have used below. Please note that these are compensated affiliate links used at no cost to you. I really appreciate your support. All products were personally purchased, except most of the stamps, dies and stencils, which were received from Altenew as part of my Guest Designer package. I was not paid to do this post and love the products that I share. Click on the icons below each product picture to shop with Altenew.
PLEASE KEEP SCROLLING DOWN TO COMMENT. :-)