Hello friends! I am so pleased to be participating in my first Altenew Educator Blog Hop! I went through the certification program last year and loved every minute! For this post, I wanted to focus on two favorite stamp sets that I purchased while I was a student in the program, Doodle Blooms and Inked Lotus.
Using Stencils on Acrylic Gel Press Mixed Media Cards
I spent a day making 5 x 7" acrylic gel press backgrounds in a variety of colors and using lots of Altenew stencils and stamps. I love color and texture and wanted this "daisy" card to be bold and vibrant so I started with this gorgeous red panel. With a brayer, I mixed pink, orange and brilliant red and applied to a plate that had some leftover yellow and green already on the press. After the panel dried, I added a layer using the Flowing Drops Stencil and then an additional layer of gold with the Narrow Brick Stencil. You can see the lovely gold shimmer in the second photo.
Die Cutting Floral Images from Acrylic Gel Press Monoprints
Using the Doodle Blooms Bundle, I stamped and die-cut a bunch of blooms from some of the other hand-crafted acrylic panels. I think this is such a happy and cheerful stamp set. I laid the die-cut flowers on the red panel and selected the blooms I liked best on the background and adhered with foam tape. The stems are from the Craft-A-Flower Cosmos Kit. The flower centers are enamel dots from the Glacier Caves and New Day collections. I finished off by adding a sentiment with a strip of my favorite Painted Grid Washi Tape.
I made a second similar card, but this time the Inked Lotus was die cut from a red/orange acrylic panel where I brayered a lot of turqouise ink over the Narrow Brick Stencil. This is my favorite stencil to use on monoprints. The background panel was brayered with Yellow, Olive and Turquoise. After the paint dried, layers were added with the Leaves and Berries Stencil (blue), Mega Bloom Stencil and finally the Narrow Brick Stencil was lightly inked in gold over the background panel. I love the dimension you get by adding layer upon layer with stencils and stamps.
Here is a photo of two of the backgrounds prior to card assembly. You can really see how lovely the stenciled accents look on the panels.
Prizes:
Altenew
is giving away a $20 gift certificate to 5 lucky winners! Please leave a
comment on the Altenew Card Blog (https://wp.me/p6Dps1-deu) by 4/4/2021 for a chance to win.
We’ll
also draw a winner to receive a $15 Altenew 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 4/6/2021.
We Want to See Your Creations Too!
What’s a hop without YOU?! We have included an Inlinkz at the Altenew blog for you to enter your
gorgeous Altenew “Old/New Favorite Altenew Stamp” creations. We will pick 2 of our
favorite handmade creations from those who joined the linky party and they will
each receive a $15 Altenew gift certificate!
If you arrived from NatashaDavies you are right on track!
Karen Brown You Are Here!
There is plenty more loveliness, so keep hopping! Be sure to head to Helen's fun post next!
Beautiful cards, love the colors
ReplyDeleteWhat awesome backgrounds for your lovely floral cards!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous cards! I love the colorful backgrounds.
ReplyDeleteThese are amazing! Great colors and backgrounds!
ReplyDeleteLove the Doodle Bloom card.
ReplyDeleteLovely cards, the mixed media look adds so much interest!
ReplyDeleteI love the gel press background and the flowers just make it pop! My fave was the 1st one with the Happy Birthday.
ReplyDeleteKaren, those gel press backgrounds are simply stunning!!! What a great way to add texture to your cards! Love them all <3
ReplyDeleteAnother look for Altenew - so much to learn about mixed media.
ReplyDeleteIncredible. Your backgrounds are absolutely amazing and they make stunning cards.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful backgrounds - great job!
ReplyDeleteAdding the patterns to the flowers is a cool idea. I also love the background to the little flowers. It adds a lot.
ReplyDeleteI think your backgrounds are kinda stealing the show here. I especially like the look you got with the narrow brick stencil in gold.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I would love to watch you make your backgrounds! Colors and patterns are fantastic, with lovely matching florals. My favorites!
ReplyDeleteI am hard pressed to pick a favorite as they are all lovely, but probably one of the lotus cards would win by a hair. I agree with the request for a video on your stunning backgrounds. Thanks for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteI am very impressed by your cards with the gel pad backgrounds. The colors are lovely!
ReplyDeleteHi Karen, I really like all of your cards but my favorite is the first Doodle Blooms card it's precious, the enamel dots in the middle of the flowers really adds to the dimension of the flowers. Thanks so much for the inspiration you've given us and for sharing your beautiful fun cards.
ReplyDeleteGreat gel press prints!
ReplyDeleteGreat created backgrounds.
ReplyDeleteVery nice cards!
ReplyDeleteYour cards are gorgeous! I love all the texture and beautiful colors!
ReplyDeleteCute and cheery cards.
ReplyDeleteLove the color combos! Pretty cards!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness...I have heard of the acrylic gel press trend lately, and have been so curious to see what people are doing with this technique. I must say that the background styles and results are so gorgeous, and colorful! Well done :-)
ReplyDeleteI love the wonderful panels you've created, Karen! Great colours!! They really help the flowers to pop! I haven't used a jelly pad yet, but this is making me consider me adding to my wish list!! Thanks for sharing! Stay safe! :)
ReplyDeleteSuch pretty cards. I love that background technique
ReplyDeleteBeautiful cards. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete