Altenew Educators "Giving Thanks" Blog Hop and Linky Party + Giveaway

The Altenew Educators are "Giving Thanks to Heros" in this blog hop and if you are here from the lovely Terri Marie Koszler's blog you are in the right place.

Altenew has a Special offer:

FREE U.S. shipping with code HAPPY6T or $5 OFF international shipping with code SHOPPING6T at checkout on orders over $29. Offer valid from 6/10/2020 at 12:01 am EDT through6/11/2020 at 11:59 pm EDT. Shop HERE! Not valid on prior purchases. Cannot be combined with other promo codes. Not valid on Altenew Academy Classes and Virtual Workshops.

Grab a favourite beverage and settle in for a bit, I have a lot of projects to share today :).

One of my favourite ways of making cards is when I can make two cards, basically at the same time, from the same supplies. Let's take a look at the card that inspired the idea to make two:

I wanted to use some "spotlight die cutting" to highlight the beautiful large floral in the Floral Art stamp set so I combined the Floral Art stamps with the diamond die from the Geo Frames Stamp and die set. When you die cut the large floral you are left with the negative "frame" to use for a second card.

The die cuts a portion of the peach flower which I then matted on black card stock and lined up with the black and grey images stamped on the base layer. 

I have a video describing how I created these two cards in detail.

Here are a couple of close ups:

This next card uses the Halftone Squares Stamp set and dies and the Framed Thanks die.

I had stamped and die cut a number of squares for another project and had a few leftovers so I thought they'd make a great background for a non-floral Giving Thanks card. I die cut the frame sentiment three times from black card stock and glued them together to create dimension.

I finished it off by adding clear glitter with a Wink of Stella glitter pen.

These next two cards combine the Build-A-Flower Stargazer and Stamping Village Thinking of You stamp sets.

I created a custom stamped panel by stamping the six layers of the bloom in the centre and then stamping the first layer only around the focal floral. 

Now don't be intimated by the fact there are six layers to this flower, it is very easy to line up and believe me it usually takes me a handful of attempts at a minimum but I was able to get it right within a couple of tries.

Of course the Altenew offering in the Stamping Village Thinking of You set is the perfect sentiment on this card to thank those who are on the front lines during these challenging times.

Again I have used the BAF-Stargazer and this time added the leaves and small blooms from the same set. I stamped the first layer of the floral image and fussy cut it to use as a mask so I could add the leaves and small blooms. 

Just a bit of an FYI on the mask as this flower does not have an outline image. You'll want to cut just a teeny bit inside the edge of your masking image to prevent a halo-white space in between your flower and the leaves for example.

You can see a wee bit of overlap and halo on these small black and white blooms so next time I will take more care in creating my mask. Again I've used the Stamping Village Thinking of You Altenew sentiment but stamped with Vineyard Berry Crisp Dye Ink.

I hope you've enjoyed these projects, keep reading to learn about prizes and how to join the Linky Party for more chances to win!

Prizes:

Altenew is giving away a $30 gift certificate to 3 lucky winners! Please leave a comment here on the Altenew Card Blog(https://wp.me/p6Dps1-bBV) by 6/17/2020 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 Card Blog on 6/21/2020.

There’s MORE! 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!

This is no ordinary hop! We want you to join in on the fun as well. There is a Linky Party going on at the Altenew Card Blog. All you have to do is link up your creations based on the theme of the hop, which is, “Giving Thanks” and mention that you are taking part in the Altenew Educators Blog Hop and Linky Party. So what are you waiting for?! Link up!

Hop list:

Altenew Card Blog

Nenette S. Madero

Christine Pennington

Vicki Finger

Amy Hill

Nandini Karmarkar

Nancy McClelland

Neha Aggarwal

Terri Marie Koszler

Rosie Neustaedter←you are here

Helen Kalb

Laurel Beard

Maryam Sharara 

Teri Stokes

Nicole Watt 

Erin Thompson

Irina Fonina

Amber Rain Davis

Patty Mello

Virginia Lu

We would love to see your projects so be sure to link up in the Linky Party!

Your next stop on the hop is Helen Kalb.

Supplies Used:

Peach Perfect Crisp Dye Ink

Heartbeat and Vineyard Berry Crisp Dye Ink

Gray Denim and Cloudy Night Crisp Dye Ink

Cherry Blossom Oval Set

Black Crisp Dye Ink

Altenew Educator "For the Love of Flowers" Blog Hop and Linky Party

Hello and welcome to the Altenew Educator "For the Love of Flowers" blog hop. I am thrilled to be participating in this educator blog hop for the first time. 

The hop starts off at the Altenew Card Blog and if you are here from the talented 

Amber Rain Davis' blog you are in the right place.

I became a certified Altenew Educator January 2019 and if you're considering the Altenew Certified Educator program, let me share a little about my experience. 

Working my way through the program was educational, fun, inspiring and, in a world full of deadlines, it was wonderful to be able to complete the program at my own pace. The wide variety of classes really stretched and grew my creativity.

We are celebrating flowers in this hop and honestly no one does flowers better than Altenew so the hard part, for me, was choosing just a couple of products to use 😉.

I decided to combine floral stamps and Washi tape and my first card is:

You Are Very Special

I covered pieces of white card stock with Altenew Red Ombre Washi tape, varying the layout of the tape strips.

Before stamping the images in clear embossing ink I treated the washi tape with a powder tool, stamped "washi paper" with the florals from the Incredible Stamp set in clear embossing ink and covered the ink with Altenew Rose Gold Crisp Embossing Powder.

 I then heat set the embossing powder, moving the heat tool off and on the image to avoid over heating the tape and making it bubble.

Next, I fussy cut the heat embossed images and arranged them on a 4"x 5 1/4" white card front, tucked in leaves stamped and rose gold heat embossed from the Wallpaper Art stamp set in the upper right and lower left corners and trimmed to the edges of the card front. 

Lastly I stamped the sentiment from the Incredible stamp set.

The leaves from a floral stamp set can make a beautiful card and I featured them, along with my "washi paper" on this:

 Happy Birthday card

I stamped and rose gold heat embossed the solid leaves from the Wallpaper Art stamp set, then die cut them with the matching die.

The Dotted Swirls Debossing Cover Die adding texture and interest to a white card front adhered to a white card base.

The rose gold embossed leaves are adhered diagonally on a rectangle of "washi paper", overlapping in the middle and trimmed the leaves off the edge of the rectangle.

I stamped the sentiment from the Paint-a-Flower: Poppy stamp with Altenew Clear Embossing ink and heat embossed with Altenew Rose Gold Embossing power on black card stock and then matted on white card stock and then black card stock and glued to the centre of the of leaves.

Speaking of the Paint-a-Flower: Poppy stamp, it is featured in this 

Poppy Happy Birthday card

One of my goals for this year is to improve my colouring skills, especially with florals so the new Paint-A-Flower stamps will give me lots of opportunity to practice. 

Here's my first go with the Paint-A-Flower: Poppy and Altenew Artist Markers-Set A. I used Frosty Pink, Coral Berry, Ruby Red and Grapevine for the poppy and Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades and Evergreen for the leaves and stem.

I glued leftover strips of my "washi paper" diagonally on a white card front trimming them to match the edge of the card front, and rose gold heat embossed the sentiment within the area framed by the paper strips.

Prizes

To Celebrate the For the Love of Flowers Educator Blog Hop Altenew is giving away a $30 gift certificate to 3 lucky winners! 

Please leave a comment here →on the Altenew Card Blog by 3/11/2020 for a chance to win. 

All winners will be announced on the Altenew Card Blog on 3/14/2020.

There’s MORE! We will pick 2 of our favorite handmade creations from those who joined the linky party and they will each receive a $15 gift certificate to the Altenew store!

We’ll also draw a winner to receive a $15 gift certificate from the comments left on each designer’s blog on the blog hop list below. 

Special Offer

Valid 3/5/2020 at 12:01 AM EST until 3/6/2020 at 11:59 PM EST. 

No code needed to enjoy this sale! Not valid on previous purchases. **Excludes February 2020 release products.

Shop Stamp & Die Bundles

Altenew Card Blog

Michelle Ochoa Murray

Nandini Karmarkar

Terri Marie Koszler 

Irina Fonina

Amy Hill

Vicki Finger

Laurel Beard

Teri Stokes

Neha Aggarwal

Nenette S. Madero

Nancy McClelland

Eva Bussom 

Amber Rain Davis

Rosie Neustaedter ← you are here

Patty Mello → your next stop

Helen Kalb

Teri Wilson

Christine Pennington

Maryam Sharara 

Nicole Watt 

Virginia Lu

Thank you so very much for stopping by to take a look at my projects, don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win a $15 gift certificatory to the Altenew store.

Your next stop on the hop is:

Patty Mello

AECP Level 3 Final Challenge| 2 for 1 Card Workshop

It felt like I took such a long time to get to the final level challenge but once the date was set it arrived quickly!

The Challenge
-teach a 2 hour class in a classroom/workshop setting
-detail pre-workshop planning and details (via email)
-deliver workshop to 4-10 students and share live with Altenew team members via internet
-share post workshop report, class projects and reflections on workshop

Pre-Planning

After choosing the class date, I began brainstorming ideas for the class itself and this was a big challenge because I had so very many ideas!  

I wrote down a bunch of ideas keeping in mind the Altenew classes I have previously completed.

I created a few different cards and made my final choices for the class content based on my main goal.

The main goal was for students to use a variety of Altenew products and experience the versatility of the products as well. 

Kits were prepared for each student with all basic supplies to make each card pre-cut, scored and one element pre-heat embossed.

Class Projects

The theme of the workshop was 2 for 1: Creating 2 cards from 1 stamp and/or technique.

Card #1- Happy Duo

An Altenew Mega Greetings die cut was used 2 ways, the negative portion as a card front and the word itself as the focus.

Card #2-Floral Duo

Two cards created by stamping the same layout in 2 different colour families and masking off a portion of the card front.

Card #3-Mom/Dad

We stamped and heat embossed one card panel, cut it apart and created a masculine and feminine card.

After a slow start, due to some technical difficulties setting up the live stream with Altenew, the students opened up their kits and crafted for 2 solid hours. 

The students enjoyed using a variety of Altenew products, they were especially impressed with the inks.

We were not able to complete all the cards however here is a photo of the group with their cards:

Reflections

My students were all experienced crafters so they were an easy group to instruct.   

It is definitely important to have multiple supplies especially if the projects are complicated.

Six cards were very ambitious, this group of experienced crafters were only able to complete 3-4 in the allotted time.

I will be much more mindful of the complexity of the project, skill level of the students and number of supplies required to complete each project in future workshops.

In closing, thank you Karla, Genny, Stacey, Virginia, Aimee and Erica for being my students. 

Thank you Virginia, Nicole and Erum from Altenew for hanging out with us via Facebook. 

Dearest Friend| One Layer Wonders AECP Project

Hello!

I am here to share a card inspired by the Altenew One-Layer Wonders class. All of the classes have been fabulous but I think this is my most favourite of them all!

I have seen so many lovely cards with pattern stamping I couldn't wait to give this lesson a go! I began by stamping the sentiment in Midnight Violet and Volcano Lake Crisp Ink, then adhered a 2"wide Post It tape mask over the stamped sentiment.

Next, I stamped the smaller floral image from the Altenew Dearest Friend stamp set in Midnight Violet Altenew Crisp Ink. The flowers are then coloured with Altenew Artist markers in R702 Lavender Fields and R705 Midnight Violet. Leaves are colored in G702 Frayed Leaf and G715 Forest Glades. I've added a shadow with WG01 Morning Frost on the edges of the sentiment block and sentiment itself.

It's hard to tell from the photo but I added some dots with a Wink of Stella Clear Glitter marker for a bit of shine that keeps this a one layer card.

Thanks for stopping in and taking a look!

Missing You| An AECP Project

Hello!

I am sharing my latest Altenew Educator Certification Project inspired by the Dynamic Die-Cutting class. So much to be inspired by in this class I had to choose between a couple of cards in deciding which to submit.

This card is based on the Partial Panelling Die cutting lesson. I love how easy it is to show off a select portion of a larger die. You can see that the focus is on the centre portion of the buildings in the Layered Cityscapes dies.

I die cut Layer A from white card stock, then inked with Distress Oxide ink in Pumice stone, the B layer was cut from glitter card stock.

I adhered both layers together with liquid glue, appling Nuvo Glimmer Paste in Moonstone through a starry stencil from my stash over navy card stock. Once the paste was dry, the cityscape layers were adhered over the navy card stock with liquid glue.

Lastly, I heat embossed 'Missing You' from the Thinking of You stamp set in silver embossing powder.

Thanks for stopping in and taking a look!

Tis' the Season

Hello!

I am sharing another AECP project today and it's inspired by the Tis' the Season class at Altenew Academy. It was hard to pick one lesson to base a card on but I was drawn to the colour combination and use of non-Christmas products in Lesson 3. 

I chose to use the Altenew Calligraphy Mazes stencil and ink blend the background with Altenew Bamboo and Forest Glades ink with a touch of Frayed leaf.

Then I blended Altenew Pinkalicious, Rubellite and Razzleberry ink on a piece of white card stock.

Next I die cut the word JOY using the Altenew Caps Bold Alpha. After cutting, I taped the letters off with purple tape, applied Versmark embossing ink on the exposed area, then heat embossed with Altenew Platinum Crisp Embossing powder.

JOY was then adhered to the centre of the card with foam tape, sentiment from the Altenew Sketched Evergreen stamp set is heat embossed with Altenew Crisp White embossing powder and layered over joy with foam tape as well. Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear confetti finish off the card.

Thanks for stopping by!