Altenew inks

Blue Antique Roses

Hello there. The builders have gone and I made a card for the both of them – who says a man can’t have a card with flowers on? Not me!

I used the Altenew ‘Antique Roses‘ again – love, love, love them flowers, and I mentioned in a previous post ‘Grey Antique Roses’ that roses are my favourite flowers:

The leaves stamped in the Gentleman Grey inks, and added the background of the Altenew ‘Dotted Swirls Debossing Cover Die‘ for some subtle interest. The sentiment is also Altenew from another stamp set.

I took this photo against one of our flower troughs – I liked the contrast of the flower colours, and here is one without:

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Midsummer Blues

The Flower Challenge – use your favourite flower

Grey Antique Roses

Hello everyone. More time to craft today, so I have created a card using my new Altenew ‘Antique Roses’ stamp set:

I began by stamping the flowers using Altenew ‘Gentleman’s Gray‘ oval inks, using all four colours for the flowers themselves, then using the black ink for the centre detail. I did the same with the leaf clusters, but these are only three layers, so I used only the lighter three inks.

The background grid is from Waffle Flower, a die I have had for a while, but never used, and cut out of a grey card stock.

The sentiment is from MFT – a very well loved and used stamp set…….

Here is a photo where my actual rose bush is casting a shadow on the card – quite fitting, I think:

The only part of my garden I have anything to do with, and don’t let the gardener anywhere near, is my rose bush and little miniature rose garden. (I let him do all the heavy garden work – but my roses are sacrosanct) These roses smell absolutely gorgeous, especially in direct sunlight where you can catch the aroma just by walking past.

I shall be entering the following challenges:
Fusion card challenge – photo colours as inspiration

Seize The Birthday – birthday with the option of flowers

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – add a die cut

Daring Cardmakers – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 – (one background die cut, 2 word sentiment, three roses, 4 leaf clusters, 5 colours – 4 greys and a black)

The Flower Challenge – favourite flower (roses)

Summer Fun…..

Hell again. There is a new challenge starting st Cardz4Galz, and the theme this time is – Summer Fun…….. I am sure that inspires lots of thoughts and ideas, and there are some great ideas from the Design Team.

I went with a calm and peaceful day, tree swing, chilling atmosphere:

I had forgotten how beautiful the Card-io range of stamps are, until I went to the Doncaster craft show the other weekend and saw their stall. They always have some fabulous samples – of which I have failed to emulate – but came up with this idea for this current challenge. I have linked to one of their pages here – for the uninitiated……….. :)

I first stamped the tree branch, swing, birds, and cat in black, then took another vine stamp and used three of the Altenew inks, using second and third generation stamping too, to create a frame.

There were also some grass stamps there – so I stamped them too…..

I was toying with the idea of ink-blending some colour in the background, or putting a scene in the background – but I like how CAS this is……I may have play with their stamps some more………..

I hope you can join us and show us your ‘Summer Fun’ creations, and I look forward to seeing you in our gallery………. :) :)

Blue Thanks

Hi everyone. The weather has certainly changed today from the past week. It is now raining and 15 degrees – whereas in the week it registered up to 36 degrees – phew it was hot! But it was gorgeous weather, and even though hot – I loved it – as long as I could get cool somewhere.

Today was perfect crafting weather, and I made a card for a couple of challenges:

I first die cut the Altenew ‘Spring Meadow‘ cover die out of a light blue card stock, then cut it again out of a darker blue card – called ‘velvet’ card as a satin but shiny finish.

I cut the dark blue into a rectangle, placed on a light blue card base, and then inlaid some of the shiny blue into the light blue. I did remember to cut the die with double-sided sticky sheets, which made this job so much easier.

The flower is from Altenew ‘Angelique Motifs’ and stamped using Altenew inks, as was the floral stem element.

The sentiment is from Stamps By Me, and all placed together as you see.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

The Rainbow card Challenge – Blue Breezes

Always Fun Challenges – mood board.

When Life Gets Prickly….

Hi there. I’ve been sorting out my craft room, and once I had a nice and clean desk – then I just had to craft, didn’t I? And – I tidied everything up afterwards! I don’t think this will last, but at least I’ll try.

Here is my card:

As I was tidying some of my stuff, I put new stamps and dies in a box so I could play with them. This is one of the stamp and die sets that has just been sitting around getting all lonesome…..

I started by using some Crafters Companion Neenah desert Storm card stock, and stamped the Concord and 9th ‘Stuck On You‘ cactus in a light green, then kinda rocked a darker green over the stamp and stamped again, to get two colours of green.

I then stamped the plantar in Versafine Clare brown, and the little hearts which I placed in a row, and the notice board.

I die cut the images – except the notice board which I had to cut out by hand – and attached everything to a darker brown card base as you see.

A complete contrast to my very, very pink card yesterday………..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Die Cuttin’ Divas – die cuts with heat or dry embossing (base panel)

Water Cooler Challenges – masculine

Daring Cardmakers – cactus/cacti

Sun, Sea, and Sand….

Hello again everyone. There is anew challenge started at Cardz4Galz, and the theme is – Sun, Sea, and Sand.

Here is my take on the theme:

To create the sea and the sand at the front, I used The Ton ‘Golf Course‘ stamp set. For the sand in the mid-ground, I used a finger dauber and one of the two shades of Altenew brown inks, and just – well – dabbed it down. It gave the effect of sand, which I’m quite pleased about.

I did the same with a blue for the sky to give an overall uneven look to it.

I then took the Hero Arts ‘Colour Layering Palm Tree‘ stamp and die set for the palm trees, hammock, and also decided to stamp some monkeys…….all die cut with the matching die set.

The sentiment is from the Hero Arts stamp set, and all layers die cut with a Sue Wilson’s stitched squares.

I hope you have the time to join us for this challenge, and I see the Design Team have some great projects for you to see…..I look forward to seeing your creations. :)

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – make your own background

Give a crafter a cookie – cookie inspiration

Pinspirational – photo inspiration

Brown Sugar Challenge – anything goes

Favourite Flower Colours

Hi there. I have a veritable feast of flowers to share on a card today. It is the new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz, and the theme is to use your favourite colours:

I couldn’t decide on one or two colours – so I did a few more! :)

I like pink and purple flowers, and I actually like when I stamp the flower layers using browns, too. The black leaves added as I do like black – is black a colour?

Anyhoo – these are my favourite colours when doing a card, especially with floral images – unless I am following a colour challenge – then the flowers become whatever is required.

I used a background stamp from Neat and Tangled, cut it down to put on the bottom half of the card, then added the flowers and leaves from Altenew ‘Always There’ with 3D glue – that way I can move them around a little until I am happy with the placement – and then push the black foliage underneath.

I hope you can come and join us with this challenge, and I see my fellow DT have come up with some very different creations – lots of different colours.

I shall also be entering this card into the following challenges:

Make My Monday Challenge – lots of flowers (think I got that one down!!)

Inkspirational – Garden

Altenew June Challenge – photo inspiration

Pink Floral Fantasy

Hello again. I have a card to share with you today which took a little bit more planning than I thought it would:

The flower is Altenew ‘Floral Fantasy‘ – quite a large floral image – and stamped using three of he Altenew pink inks. I used a light grey for the solid leaves.

The sentiment is from Mama Elephant ‘Hilly Hello‘ and die cut as you see.

The planning part of it was the die cut sentiment – I did the first die cut and then looked around for papers I had which matched the pinks, but as I didn’t have any, I made my own background by stamping the solid leaves from the stamp set in the lightest of the pinks I used for the flower, with the added smaller star shape from Altenew ‘Build a Flower Daffodil‘ as I had a few white areas I wanted to fill-in.

I was going to just layer the background, but decided to ‘inlay’ the two layers together, as I knew the flower and leaves would have some dimension using my 3D glue. I didn’t want too much height on the card.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Just Us Girls – use mid, light, and dark tone of one colour

Crazy 4 Challenges – sketch

Crafty Sentiments – anything goes

Raspberry Daffodils

Hello there. I have been playing with a new stamp set purchased from a craft show I went to in Doncaster yesterday:

These are the Daffodils from Altenew, which I have been wanting for a while, and I decided to veer away from the traditional colours, and to follow the current Color Throwdown colours of raspberry, lavender, green, and Kraft.

I stamped and heat embossed the outline of the flowers and leaves in white, then used Rich Razzleberry from Stampin Up to water-colour the flowers, and then a green for the leaves from the Altenew water-colour pan set – but I didn’t like the green water-colour leaves – too much white – so I stamped them again in just a green……just the outline…..not the filler.

I then die cut the Altenew ‘Spring Meadow‘ cover die out of Kraft card to use as a background – but again didn’t like the way it looked – too fussy behind these flowers – but I did use some of the ‘fall-out’ leaves, and then decided to die-cut it again in some lavender card-stock I had, and used the ‘fall-out’ leaves from that colour too.

I thought about a sentiment, but at this point have left the card without one – I’m not sure if I’ll add one or not………….only time will tell.

Another photo with the card in full sunlight:

I shall be entering this into the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – raspberry, lavender, green, kraft

Water-cooler Challenge – anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Gold Dipped Delicate Clusters

Hello there. I spent some time yesterday starting to put a card together, and completed it this morning:

I stamped out the clusters only from Altenew ‘Delicate Clusters‘ – not the stems – in three shades of blue, and for the fourth layer I used gold embossing powder.

The two leaves are from Tom Holtz ‘Garden Greens‘ die set, where I put some double-sided sticky tape down on some card, then used the same gold embossing powder to create two strips, from which I die-cut the leaves.

The sentiment is also embossed using the same embossing powder, and is from another Altenew stamp set.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches – sketch

Inkspirational – gold dipped

Die-cut divas – flowers and a die cut

Addicted to Stamps – stamping and flowers