WWC299 - Heidi's Challenge: All About Occasions

 

Hello, hello and welcome!  We are creating "Occasion" cards this week at Watercooler Wednesday and we would love to see your card in our gallery.  Heidi is our hostess.   I made a Mixed Media encouragement card.

I really like the rustic vintage brick background combined with the heat embossed spray of flowers.  

This background was made by hand-dipping the background in diluted die ink and custom tinting my embossing paste.  

• I mixed brown ink with water and Irridescent Shimmer Spray and then dipped a piece of Bristol cardstock into the puddle.  I dried the panel and then repeated.
• I blended my Embossing Paste with brown ink for the bricks.  
• I swiped the embossing paste over my stencil with a palette knife.  I wanted a rough look so I didn't cover the entire stencil and I made sure there was a variety of thickness to the paste. 
• While the embossing paste was wet, I sprinkled just a bit of brown metallic embossing powder on the paste, wiped most of it off and then heat set. I love the texture and interest it adds. 
• I heat embossed Altenew's Best Mom spray (in brown metalic) and then die-cut the image.  

I am also playing along with:

Mix It Up - Make Your Own Background

The Flower Challenge - Use A Sentiment

Creative Artiste Challenge #66

Tic Tac Toe  I chose diagonal top right to bottom left.  Brown, ink blending and metallic.

UPDATE:  I was so pleased to see my card was a Team Pick at Tic Tac Toe.

I am so pleased that you stopped by!

Karen

WWC298 - Kath's Challenge: Anything Masculine Goes

 

Hello, hello and welcome!  In my family "puppy" cards are always a hit and I created this one for Watercooler Wednesday's Challenge.  Kath is our hostess this week and we would love for you to play along.

This week we are creating masculine cards and I used MFT's Lucky Dog stamp and die bundle along with Honey Bee Stamps Square Window Trio. 

I die cut the three window frames,  Copic colored and die cut the pups and hand inked the background panel for a bright bold look.  

I am also playing along at:

Love to Craft Challenge  Anything Goes

Inkspirational "Frame It" I framed each of my cute pups.

Always Fun Challenges Anything Goes

UPDATE:  I was so pleased to see this card was a top pick at The Inkspirational "Frame It" Challenge!

I am so happy you stopped by today!

Karen

Altenew Academy Level 3 Workshop

 

Hello!  I am so excited to share the final project for my Level 3 Altenew Academy Educator Certification Program.  At left I am talking about my samples for the ink-blending card we created.  

This has been such a fun journey for me! I started the certification program in May and since then I have taken 25 classes, written 25 blog posts about what I learned and completed a final project for Level 1 and Level 2.  The class instructors taught me new techniques and improved the skills I had.  I've worked hard, learned a lot and enjoyed every moment!

I invited four good friends over for a morning of card making and it became an "international event" with the on-line attendance of  Virginia Lu of Canada and Erum Tasneem of Pakistan.  They have been so encouraging and were with me every step of the way.  

I started by creating two beginner level card projects to teach to my participants:  faux watercolor stamping and ink blending with stencils.  I worked on my lesson plan, came up with a timeline and created sample cards which I submitted to Virginia in advance.  The day before, I set up the workspace for my class.

Each work station had a silicone mat, microfiber cloth, blending brush, stamps, stencils, washi tape, A2 card panels, two die cut sentiments, acrylic blocks, ink, liquid glue, A2 card bases, colored envelops, tags and ribbon.  

We talked about analogous, monochromatic and neutral colors and demonstrated how to use the color wheel.  Next we selected our ink colors, inked our stamps and then spritzed with water for a faux watercolor look.   We set our faux watercolors aside to dry and practiced ink blending on a panel.  Several of my friends liked their practice panel so much that they made a third card even though the class plan was for two.  I had plenty of extra card bases and sentiments so our impromptu cards came together just fine. For our planned second card we did ink blending over a stencil.  We then trimmed and assembled our cards and we made such a happy mess!

This is what the table looked like when we were done.  Liz created the three cards above.  The one on the right is faux watercolor, the middle is the practice ink blending panel and the left was the planned ink-blending over a stencil card.  Below is Liz with her three cards.

 Nancy and her cards are below.  Nancy created a bonus card also.

Rhonda created three cards as well.

Kathy's cards turned out great too!

Of course we needed a group photo as well.

I think my friends had a great time....as Nancy said "Making cards is relaxing, fun and therapeutic".  Exactly!

A big thank you to Virginia, Erum, Kathy, Rhonda, Nancy and Liz. What a fun day!

Essential Altenew Supplies:

Block Print Stamp Set (for faux watercoloring)

Mini Ink Cubes

Mega Bloom Stencil

Sketched Lines Stencil

Flowing Drops Stencil

Bubble Wrap Stencil

Leaves and Berries Stencil

Thanks Die

Hello Die

Sunlit Flower A2 Card Base and Envelop Set

Thanks for stopping by!  It was most enjoyable and I am happy to share the experience with you.

Karen

WWC297 - Helen's Challenge: All About Occasions

 

Hello, hello and welcome!  This week we are creating "occasion cards" at The Watercooler Wednesday Challenge and we would love to see your card in our gallery.  Helen is our hostess.  This week I chose to made a mixed media card.

I love that there are really no rules with mixed media. It seems the best thing to do is lay out your messiest supplies and then select a bunch for each card.  Do not be a minimalist when experimenting with multi-media.

The background was made by hand-dipping the panel and custom tinting my embossing paste.  

• I mixed Zig Cobalt Blue with water and Irridescent Shimmer Spray and then dipped a piece of Bristol cardstock into the colorful puddle.  I dried the panel and then repeated.
• I tinted my Embossing Paste with Carved Pumpkin distress ink for a fallish vibe.  
• I swiped the embossing paste over my stencil with a palette knife.  I wanted a rough look so I didn't cover the entire stencil and I made sure there was a variety of thickness to the paste. 
• While the embossing paste was wet, I sprinkled just a bit of Peach Embossing Powder on the paste and then heat set. I love the texture and interest it adds. 
• I heat embossed Weekend Doodles, watercolored with my Zig markers and then die-cut the image.  
• I added a bit of Painted Grid Washi Tape to the sentiment strip and assembled.  

I really like the texture on this card.

I am also playing along with:

Mix It Up Challenge - Make Your Own Background.

Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge

UPDATE:  I am was pleased to discover that this card was chosen as a "Top Pick" at The Mix It Up Challenge!

I am so pleased that you stopped by!

Karen

WWC296 - Michelle's Challenge: Anything Feminine Goes

 

Hello, hello and welcome!  This week we are creating feminine cards at The Watercooler Wednesday Challenge and we would love to see your creation in our gallery.  Michelle is our hostess this week.  

I've had my eye on the Altenew Hibiscus Garden 3D die set for sometime and finally bought it.  I wanted to use seasonal jewel tones  so I die cut my pieces from Altenew's Enchanting Washes Cardstock.  I like the gorgeous colors and the fact that it is thick like cardstock.  For the leaves I ink blendeded  4 colors of green on watercolor paper.  My background is a light watercolor wash where I then softened the edges with a towel so it fades out.  I dried the panel and then  added purple and black paint spatters.  Next I mixed gesso with Iridescent Shimmer Spray and added more splatters.  I assembled and paired with a Bold Envelope and my birthday card is now ready to mail.

I am also playing along with:

Festive Friday FF0071 I included die cuts, patterned paper (hibiscus), flowers and sentiment.  

UPDATE:  I was excited to see my card was selected as a "Festive Fave"!

Crafty Hazel Nuts Patterned Paper Challenge  I used Altenew Enchanting Washes Patterned Cardstock for the two hibiscus.

Karen