Alt & New November Release Blog Hop!

Hi there, and welcome to my stop on the Altenew blog hop, celebrating the November release of new stamps and dies!

I was sent the Adore You and Hello Sunshine sets to play with and as I was sitting at my desk planning out my cards I was really feeling a winter/vibe — I’ve already started making Christmas cards and I guess I’m just in that mode! Plus, I was inspired by some winter wedding bouquets I saw on pinterest (click to see my board here) to use blues and other muted colors for my cards. To top it off, it’s actually “cold” here in Austin, Texas right now — as in it’s 63, LOL!

Adore You by Altenew — I just love ALL those flowers! This is a BIG stamp set you guys — as in 6×8″!

A Bunch of Posies

I started out by stamping a BUNCH of flowers from the Adore You set on watercolor paper with white pigment ink and heat embossing them with white powder — and I do mean a BUNCH of posies. After stamping and embossing, I went to town coloring them with watercolors. I could sit and watercolor all day! I used my trusty set of inexpensive pan colors from Michaels, plus French ultramarine and indigo from Winsor & Newton that come in tubes. The French ultramarine is the medium blue that you see and the indigo is the darker color.

While the flowers were still wet I dropped in indigo blue on the centers and parts of the leaves — love the look this gives so much! To drop in color, you just load up your brush with pigment and then touch it to the painted piece. The colors will spread and feather together depending on how wet the piece is. I love how unpredictable it is.

Then once the flowers were dry I cut them out and misted them with Mister Huey’s shine. I’ve had this mist for forever now and I’m bound and determined to use it up. I think it adds a pretty shimmer that somehow reminds me of snow crystals.

Hello Sunshine (6×8″) by Altenew

Next I white heat embossed some of the leaves and flowers from the Hello Sunshine set on vellum and cut those out too.

I ended up turning these into TWO cards — and I have enough flowers left to make more! :)

Wintery Thank You

My first card is this wintery thank you and I love how it turned out!

I think the colors really pop against the navy cardstock, yet they still have that muted wintery feel.

I cut deeply into the petals and then curled them up a little to add dimension.

You can really see the shiny mist more in real life — the camera just doesn’t do it justice!

I finished off the card with a few enamel dots — and that was that.

Floral Blues

For my second card I stuck to flowers colored with blues and burgundy for a simpler feel.

I think this one is my fave of the two — it just makes me feel happy and peaceful.

The shimmer really shows up here on these!

I finished off the card by adding navy enamel dots to the centers of the flowers.

Hop On

Your next stop on the hop is Marika Rahtu‘s blog and I can’t wait to see what she’s made!

If you’re just now joining us our encounter a broken link, you can find the whole hop lineup right here. I’m so honored to be among these awesome women and friends.

Altenew
Debby Hughes
Wanda Guess
Lydia Evans
Yana Smakula
Amy Gray
Kathy Racoosin
Agnieszka Malyszek
Lisa Spangler <<< you are here :)
Marika Rahtu
Jennifer McGuire
Therese Calvird
Joni Nina Andaya
Sandy Allnock
Svitlana Shayevich
May Sukyong Park
Laura Bassen

Giveaways!

To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to THREE lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew blog by Monday, November 21st at 11:59 PM ET for a chance to win. The winners will be announced on the Altenew blog on Tuesday, November 22nd.

And that’s not all! I get to draw a lucky winner for a $30 gift certificate, yay! Please leave your comment here on this post by Monday, November 21st at 11:59 PM ET as well and I’ll choose a random winner on Tuesday, November 22nd.

Thanks so much to Altenew for having me in the hop, and to all of YOU for joining me! xo

Edited to add: The lucky random winner of my $30 gift certificate is Helen F! YAY! (I emailed you.) Comments are now closed.