Double Duty with Altenew!

On the 22nd of each month some friends challenge ourselves to create 2 different cards repeating the same image, sentiment, etc on each card.  We have a predetermined list of the stamp company or specific challenge for each month and then...away we go!

This month we feature Altenew which have incredible floral stamps with matching stencils, dies and embossing folders. It was a tough decision but  I settled on their "Perfect Gift" suite of stamps, dies and stencils. 

We received this set in the Spring Crop and Create virtual card making event.  The pink floral is the design from the class, modified slightly.

I used a combination of ink cubes from Tayored Expressions and Gina K Designs and the stencils to color the flowers and leaves. 

The background flowers are stamped in a light grey ink and the sentiment is cut from black card stock.

The second card uses the same layout, however the images and sentiment have been gold embossed on Black card stock.

The leaves and flowers are water colored with paints that have mica in the pigment for a nice subtle sheen.

The black panel is mounted onto a purple card stock, however it's not obvious in my photograph.

I'm pretty happy with my end results.  Both cards will be mailed later in May to friends for their birthdays.  This set will get a lot of use from me!

Please visit the blogs of the other Double Duty members:

Barb

Jeanette

Carol 

Party Time for the Creative Crew!

Hard to believe that it's mid April already and time for another challenge for the Creative Crew. Terry is our hostess this month and she chose "It's Party Time!" for our theme.

Terry gave us really fun images already die cut! "Festive Balloons" by Simon Says Stamp.  Also included were some great designer papers by Stampin' Up called "Pattern Party".

I colored the images with some borrowed Copics and also colored the floral strip of paper. Then the balloons were given some Wink of Stella to create shine.

The sentiment was trimmed and mounted on the reverse of one of the DPs and the final designer paper was placed inside.  I like that all of the papers were included on my card.

Please use the links below to drop by the blogs and galleries of the whole Creative Crew gang. 

Barb - Barb's Inkin' In Retirement

Carol - Lost in My Craft Room

Jeanette - Cre8tive Play

Lorraine - SCS Gallery

Terry - It's Totally Terry

Tracie - Crafty Creations by Tracie

Terry, you really gave us a fun and versatile kit to work with! I'll be putting the extra images to good use for upcoming birthdays.  Thank you!

Hot Mess with Alcohol Inks & Yupo Silver Sparkle

Hot Mess = Success Day is the 15th!  Every month a group of friends challenge ourselves to get messy. We can do any sort of card or technique, as long as it meets our personal definition of getting messy.

This month I decided to play with Yupo Paper and some Alcohol Inks by Tim Holtz/Ranger.  I took two sheets of Silver Sparkle Yupo paper and applied the ink with a blender sponge tool that Tim Holz uses.

Here are my two panels:

This one used 2 colors on the sponge, Dijon and Lagoon.  Of course they blended to a green. Which I liked so I used it.  Look how glittery that paper is!

The second panel has just the Lagoon blue ink applied.  The photo really doesn't do it justice.

Here's the finished card:

The balloons were die cut from a section of the green panel.  Turns out that Yupo paper is REALLY hard to die cut. Who knew?

Once I separated out the left and right balloon pieces from the die cut, I traced around them and hand cut the blue inserts to make the blue ones.

The rest of the green panel was embossed with a striped design and the balloons were glued onto the embossed panel. Hint: it would have been better to use the clear glue dots rather than liquid glue. The liquid glue moved around too much.

The Birthday sentiment is by Taylored Expressions and colored with markers.

All in all, I learned a few things about working with the ink, paper and die cutting it. That makes me happy!  I will be trying this again soon.  Maybe for next month's Hot Mess challenge. 

Be sure to stop by the Hot Mess Team and admire their creations!  Here are their links:

Jeanette

Barb

Terry

Carol