Monday, March 29, 2021

Altenew Educators "Favorite Old/New Altenew Stamp" Blog Hop and Linky Party + Giveaway

   

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

Altenew Doodle Bloom Die Cut Mixed Media Card

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.  
Altenew Doodle Blooms and Narrow Brick Stencil

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.
Tone on Tone Orange Mixed Media card.
The background from this next card is the top portion of the panel I used on the daisy card above. I die cut it with the largest Rounded Rectangle and then backed with foam for dimension.  The Inked Lotus was heat embossed and die cut from a coordinating monoprint panel for a tone-on-tone look and was adhered with foam tape.  The sentiment was die-cut from black cardstock using the Essential Sentiments Set.  

Acrylic Paint Gel Press Mixed Media Card.

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.    

Blue and Violet Monet like Mixed Media card.
For my last card, I changed things up and used softer colors:  Sky Blue, Blue Violent, Light Purple and Brilliant Purple over a press that had some leftover Olive and Turquoise.  I then brayered over the Mega Bloom Stencil with a light coat of gold.  You can see the shimmer better in the second photo.  I again used the  Doodle Blooms Stamp and Die Bundle to stamp and cut my elements from a variety of  gel press prints.  I finished with  Glacier Caves Enamel Dots for the centers.
Blue and Violet Gel Press Card Background

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.  


As I mentioned, I loved using these two stamps for my AECP class work.  Here are two homework assignments I submitted using the sets:



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!  


Altenew Card Blog

Bridget Casey

Colleen Balija 

Teresa Litchfield

Katrina Howe

Rosie Neustaedter

Terri Marie Koszler

Tenia Nelson

Pam Boedeker

Nandini Karmarkar

Amy Hill

Irina Fonina

Natasha Davies

Karen Brown             You Are Here!

Helen Kalb

Patty Mello

Roteja Galvan

Eva Bussom

Fiona Duff

Jaycee Gaspar

Vicki Finger

Nenette S. Madero

Teri Wilson

Rachael Shedeed

Neha Aggarwal

Kari VanNoy

Teri Stokes

Amber Rain Davis

Virginia Lu

Sandra Woodson


There is plenty more loveliness, so keep hopping!   Be sure to head to Helen's  fun post next!


I would love to hear which card you liked best.  Thanks for stopping by!
Karen





27 comments:

  1. What awesome backgrounds for your lovely floral cards!

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  2. Gorgeous cards! I love the colorful backgrounds.

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  3. These are amazing! Great colors and backgrounds!

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  4. Lovely cards, the mixed media look adds so much interest!

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  5. I love the gel press background and the flowers just make it pop! My fave was the 1st one with the Happy Birthday.

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  6. Karen, those gel press backgrounds are simply stunning!!! What a great way to add texture to your cards! Love them all <3

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  7. Another look for Altenew - so much to learn about mixed media.

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  8. Incredible. Your backgrounds are absolutely amazing and they make stunning cards.

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  9. Beautiful backgrounds - great job!

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  10. Adding the patterns to the flowers is a cool idea. I also love the background to the little flowers. It adds a lot.

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  11. I think your backgrounds are kinda stealing the show here. I especially like the look you got with the narrow brick stencil in gold.

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  12. Beautiful! I would love to watch you make your backgrounds! Colors and patterns are fantastic, with lovely matching florals. My favorites!

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  13. I 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.

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  14. I am very impressed by your cards with the gel pad backgrounds. The colors are lovely!

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  15. Hi 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.

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  16. Your cards are gorgeous! I love all the texture and beautiful colors!

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  17. Love the color combos! Pretty cards!

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  18. Oh 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 :-)

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  19. I 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! :)

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  20. Such pretty cards. I love that background technique

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  21. Beautiful cards. Thanks for sharing.

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Thank you so much for stopping by! I enjoy reading all the comments.

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