Altenew Mixed Media Madness Hop

3D Die Cutting + Acrylic on Mixed Media Paper

Hello!  The Altenew Educators have a fun Instagram Hop called Mixed Media Madness currently underway.  There are loads of prizes and lots of inspiring projects so I hope you can hop along with us. I drew my inspiration from my backyard.  The two mixed media backgrounds are my interpretation of the water in my swimming pool and the layered die-cuts are based on my potted coral Hibiscus.  I  handcrafted all the paper used to die-cut my flowers.  

I have been loving layering dies lately and wanted to get out an old favorite, Altenew's Hibiscus Garden as I think it is perfect going into summer.  I used this set as the focal point for both of my cards.  

I loosely mixed turquoise, white and pale yellow acrylic paint with a brayer for my background.  The leaves are cut from painted acrylic panels of moss, spring green and pale yellow.  The Hibiscus are cut from three panels:  orange, orange + white and a panel of white with a hint of orange.  The sentiment is from Altenew's Birthday Greetings stamp set.

The background for my second card is similar but there was leftover blue on my gel plate.  I also added an additional layer of gold using my favorite Narrow Brick Stencil . This stencil just came out this spring, but it is already my most used stencil!  I love the subtle texture and dimension it adds.  I then die cut the panel using  Altenew's Rounded Rectangles die.  I added craft foam to the back of the panel and adhered the flower with foam tape.

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

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. 

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.

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.  

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.    

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.

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:

Doodle Blooms Card

Inked Lotus Card

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

Mixed Media ATC Card

 Hello!  Last year, a cardmaking friend gave me a 1968 dictionary that was part of a classroom set that was no longer used.  I thought it was time to use a page or two in my cardmaking.  I've also been fascinated by some of the ATC's (artist trading cards) that I've been seeing on Instagram so that was the inspiration for this card.  

Mixed Media Greeting Card

Using the dictionary pages, I stamped and die cut the flowers using the  Doodle Blooms Bundle.  I then used watercolor pencils and a damp watercolor brush to shade and color the diecuts.

I wanted a rough, colorful background, so I applied pink, orange and red acrylic ink to mixed media paper with a brayer.  After the paint dried, I used the brayer to apply aqua ink over the Narrow Bricks Stencil.  I let this dry and then used the accent leaves from the Tea Time set and the greenery from the Billowing Blossoms stamp to randomly stamp on the background.  For the ATC look, I used the Rounded Rectangles to die-cut my background panel.  The sentiment is from The Birthday Greetings Set.  With black ink, I inked the edges of the background and the sentiment strips and then applied  Tea Party Enamel Dots for the center of the flowers.  

Gelli Plate Monoprint Card

For this second card, I used gel press printing and acrylic paints (violet, tourquoise, yellow, olive and magenta) to make this striking background.  I used the  Flowing Drops Stencil on my second layer.   I then used Deep Iris Dye Ink to stamp a variety of small images on the background.  I was going for a grungier look on this card.  I love using LOTS of inks, stamps and stencils for a complex mixed media card.

Next, I used the Smile More Bundle to stamp and die cut the daisies.  I again watercolored with watercolor pencils.  

This was a very fun card to make!

Thank you for stopping by!

Karen

WWC306 - Michelle's Challenge: All About Occasions

 

Hello and welcome.  For the The Watercooler Wednesday Challenge, I've created a mixed media card for my design team project and I love the shimmer and shine it has in person.  This card was so fun to make!

My Process:

I tore three snippets of book text from a dictionary and then glued them to a card panel with gesso and a wet brush.  I used gel medium then the page and then another layer of gel medium.

I added a layer of gesso over the top and dried.

Next I added some pencil scribbles and doodles.

I dipped the panel in a combination of die ink mixed with shimmer spray.  Dried then repeated.  This gives gorgeous shine to the card.  

I heat embossed the image and sentiment and mounted on a colored A2 card base.

Supplies:

Altenew Best Mom stamp

Altenew Iridescent Shimmer Spray

Dye Ink

Gesso

Multimedia Gel

Embossing Powder

Text from a Dictionary

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

WWC304 - Kath's Challenge: All About Occasions

 

Hello and welcome!  This is my design team card for Watercooler Wednesday's "All About Occasions" Challenge.  Kath is our hostess.

I wanted to make a mixed media card and this is the bold look I came up with.  I started by spreading gesso on the cardstock with a card.  I let it dry and then used diluted watercolors to paint my background.  After the panel was dry, I spritzed it with shimmer spray,  which gives the background a pretty sheen.  Next I stamped with the script background stamp.  I finished by heat embossing the tree.  I wanted a lot of texture so I heat embossed the tree twice. 

Supplies:

Crackerbox and Suzy Tree Whimsy Stamp

Altenew Essential Sentiment Strips Sentiment

MFT Romantic Script Background Stamp

Altenew Iridescent Shimmer Spray

Frayed Burlap Distress Ink (for script)

Gesso

Watercolor

Black Heat Embossing

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

WWC301 - Dawn's Challenge: All About Occasions

 

Don't you just love "twofer" cards?  This card is the second from a pair of mixed media thank you cards that I made.  Click here to see the first card.  I created this one for  Watercooler Wednesday's  All About Occasions Challenge and Dawn is this week's hostess.

I was wanting to make some thank you cards to use this month and thought aqua, silver and white would be festive, bright and seasonal.

My Process:

• I glued the die-cut Altenew Mega T from my first card to a watercolor paper panel. I then painted over the top of the card with gel media.
• I added a layer of gesso and dried.
• I mixed Mermaid Lagoon distress ink and Shimmer Spray and painted a layer on the card.
• I pounced some Versamark ink across the panel and silver heat embossed.
• I mixed a more concentrated mermaid lagoon and shimmer spray combination and brushed on random areas.
• Buffed the embossing with a baby wipe to clean up and enhance the shine.
• I added a die cut thanks sentiment. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Karen 

WWC300 - Tristan's Challenge: Anything Feminine Goes

Hello and welcome!  There is a lot of "new" on the card that I created for this week's Watercooler Wednesday challenge.  I love ink blending and have been wanting to try Altenew's Ink Blending Tool so I recently purchased the large blender and this was my first time giving it a "go".   I was immediately impressed by how well the blender worked my background.  We are making "feminine" cards this week  so I went with some fun bright coral, pink and purple for my background.  This is a new color combination for me, but I really like it and will definitely use it again.  

A while back, I won some stamps from Crackerbox and Suzy and I wanted to use their Christmas tree, which I thought was quite girly too.  

I started my project by masking off the bottom of my card panel and then began my ink blending.  I created a crude tree mask with a post-it and  added white pigment dots with a fun stamp.  After that was dry I added the script stamp.  I didn't want the script to be uniform so I dabbed off some of the ink prior to stamping.  Last, I heat embossed the the tree.  

What is new for me on this card:

Altenew's Ink Blending Tool for the background

Crackerbox and Suzy's Christmas Tree Fancy Swirl

The Distress Ink background combo (coral, raspberry, seedless preserves)

MFT's Romantic Script (I purchased this months ago but had not used it yet)

Supplies:

Crackerbox and Suzy Christmas Tree Fancy Swirl

Altenew Large Ink Blending Tool

Altenew Pinstripe (dots)

MFT Romantic Script

Hero Arts Unicorn Pigment Ink

Distress Ink:  Abandoned Coral, Pickled Raspberry and Seedless Preserves (Ink Blending)

Distress Ink: Frayed Burlap (background script)

Black heat embossing

Bristol Cardstock

I am also playing along with:

Allsorts: Christmas Flowers, Wreaths and Trees Challenge  I am playing along with my Christmas Tree.

Krafty Chicks All Occasions Challenge  I made a holiday card

Love to Craft December Anything Goes Challenge

I am so happy you stopped by!

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