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

WWC303 - Karen's Challenge: Anything Feminine Goes

 

Hello and welcome!  I am so excited to be hosting our challenge this week at Watercooler Wednesday where our theme is "feminine".  I created a monochromatic vintage look card using stamps from a collection of companies.

I started by playing around with my layout and when I was happy with the look I stamped and heat embossed the images in brown on tan card stock.  I then aged the panel using mocha die ink.

This is a very different card for me, but I like the look.

Supplies:

Altenew Block Print Stamp

Altenew Pinstripe (sentiment)

Altenew Mocha Dye Ink

Pink and Main Pattern Maker

Pink Fresh Studio Scootin By

My Monthly Hero April 2017 (dress and poodle) which unfortunately is sold out.

I hope to see your card in our gallery this week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

Altenew Tall Vase

Altenew Tall Vase Stamp and Die

Hello and welcome!  Just a quick post today to spotlight this fun new Altenew mini-stamp set called Tall Vase.  This card was fast and easy to create.  A masked ink blended background with this beautiful die cut botanical image.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Karen

 

WWC302 - Marsha's Special 3-Week Challenge

Cheers to each of you!  We are changing things up at Watercooler Wednesday and are having a three week "Anything Goes" end of year challenge.  I created a card I thought would be fun and festive for New Years.

Supplies:

• Honey Bee Square Window Trio
• Hand Inked Blue Background panel
• Clearly Besotted Raise a Glass stamp
• Tonic Nuvo Crystal Glaze

We would love to see your creation in our gallery.

I am also playing along with:

The Mix It Up Clean and Simple Challenge

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

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