Altenew - Easy Die Cutting Techniques

 As the name indicates,  this class from Altenew is all about easy die cutting techniques.  I think from all of the classes that I did for the level 1 course of the Altenew Educator Certification Program, this one was the one I enjoyed the most.  I love die cutting and this class was right up my alley.  I completed several cards from this class and I had a hard time choosing my favourite project.

This cityscape card almost made the cut as my favourite and it was so simple to make that it may become one of my go to cards for a quick masculine version for a birthday card.  I love the way it embossed with the two dies and I wasn't sure if it would turn out by running it through the big shot twice but it remained embossed for both layers so that was a win.

But I think the winner of the favourite project from this class is the one where I made my own embossing folder with die cuts.  I arranged them in a pattern on the card and did a white on white combo so that I could use the "folder" as a card front after I was done with the embossing part of it.  It turned out so well.  I did learn that if your are going to emboss with a die cut and you need to run the card front through the die cut machine to make a border or edge cut to do that first or the embossing flattens out somewhat as shown in the grey card.  It is still visible but a much softer embossing on the second pass in the machine.

All about family

 This week's challenge at Shopping our Stash is "All About Family".  We are to use something family related in our project.  It also happens to be my niece's 16th birthday and that means the right of passage for driving has arrived for her.  I made her this super fun light up card with a bunch of safari family animals in a jeep to represent her ability to go and get her driver's license that is coming up soon.  I hope she likes it...how could anyone resist a safari animal light up box card anyway?  Play along with us, will you?

Altenew - Let it Shine

 

                                                

 Altenew Let it Shine class was right up my alley....I could use bling and glitter for days.  I really enjoyed the different techniques done in the class sections.  I think my favourite ended up being the use of minimal metallic paper on a project.  I am not hesitant to use up my foil cards stock (I probably have a lifetime supply in my craft room and can never resist buying more).  I chose to do some super narrow frames from my altenew die that I just received with some tropical flowers.  The little bit of black and white stripe really added to the card and made my sentiment strip stand out as well.

I loved the embossing of the thank you sentiment as well.  It's something that I don't do very often and it was a forgotten about technique that I used to use years ago.  I am glad I was reminded about it as I really like the look of the faux metal on the this card.

Altenew - For the Guys

This For The Guys class by Altenew was a well needed class for me.  I often find masculine cards incredibly difficult to make.  I don't know if I over do it or what, but they always end up looking feminine in the end.  

This class led to some awesome inspiration for masculine looking colour combinations and backgrounds to make things look presentable to any make in my life.

My take on an interactive card was to make a light up card.  I used vellum on the moon and on the star bursts so that you could easily see the light coming through but it was opaque enough that you couldn't see the little lightbulbs.

I took inspiration from the class by using a pun to make a funny card for a boy.  I hope your day is electric went perfect for the lightening on this card.  I tripled up and layered the clouds to make it look like a stormy prairie sky - some with all the layers and some with only a couple of the layers.

 

Altenew Easy Ink Blending Techniques

The Easy ink blending techniques class from Altenew was exactly as advertised.  I love ink blending so this was more of a refresher for me than new information but the sample designs offered in the class were inspirational.

 

I started with the first two lessons.  The background orange turned out really well with the firebrick ink.  I also ink blended the thanks in the same colour to make it coordinate perfectly.

I finally had a good excuse to ink up my jellyfish card by making a watery background.  I did a bokeh technique with some white ink on top and it is so subtle but looks awesome as you don't notice it unless you look really closely - it gives it such dimension while being completely flat.

The course challenge was to make a holiday shaker card.  I love the looks of these birds for Christmas so I figured I would get a jump start on my Christmas cards - seeing as how it is -36 C here today and too cold to do much else.  I was inspired by our winter sunset out the craft room window and the colour that the sky looked in the cold at that exact moment.  Pastel perfection in my opinion. Plus, who doesn't love a shaker card with little styrofoam snowballs?  I added a tiny amount of baby powder to the paper to cut the static down from the little balls so they didn't stick to the acetate.

 

Altenew Clean and Simple Boutique Cards

 Clean and simple boutique cards...the name says it all - but that is not the truth for me.  Clean and simple are the farthest thing I get from simple.  They are so hard for me.  I like to fill all my spaces up with colour and bling - too much so at times.  This class had it all - from foiling and techniques to style.  

I tried some faux letterpress in this birthday card and some foiling in the thank you card.  There is definitely a huge learning curve to both techniques.  I made 15 birthday card fronts before finding a paper weight and sandwich for my embossing machine so that the paper didn't crack in the d and a insides.  I'm not sure if the die was just too detailed or it was me or a combination of the two, but it took forever to get that simple card to look presentable.

I love how the above cards turned out.  My attempt at clean and simple was a success on the right sided card and the homemade background on the left is light and elegant and pretty looking.  Maybe not too clean and simple, but I still love the effect.

This card focused on the foils.  Not heat foil but card stock foil.  I love the way it turned out but I can not figure out how to get a good picture of it.  I tried a few ways, but this is the best I could get.  Even with a light box.  There has to be a better trick to it, but I don't have an idea of what it could be? It is either shadowed or grey or too yellow.  But in reality it is a beautiful and crisp white.

Altenew All About Layering 2

 Hello there blogger friends.  I just completed Altenew's All About Layering 2 class and it was so much fun.  I had a hard time picking my favourite project from this class to present for my educator's class challenge.

I love the simplicity of this card with all the diamond patterns aligning and the hint of gold to make it a little more elegant - a clean and simple card (which for me is a huge challenge).

But in the end I decided that this was my favourite one.  I played with washi tape to cover the whole card base.  That is a new one for me as I usually only use it in simple strips across a card front...I used the peony bouquet stamp set and it was my first time using this one.  I tried out some flowers on the peach and orange shades and just loved the way they turned out.

Altenew Academy Acceptance and All about Layering #1 class

 

Hello everyone!  I have some great news to share.  I have been accepted into the Altenew Educator Certification Program through the Altenew Stamp company.  I love their layering stamps and I am super excited to share the projects I am making through their classes.   

The first class that I am taking is called All About Layering 1.  This class helped me with the alignment of several of my layering flower sets.  There are some great tips and tricks on how to line up some of the flowers which can seem overwhelming at the beginning.  They are so addictive to play with though.  Some of the cards I "copied" from the class are shown here.

This the card I made for one of the challenges in the class using the painted poppy stamp set.  I love the look of the poppies.  They are always so striking to me.

I am also working on staging my cards and my photography skills for them. This is not something I excel at by any means so I am using this course to practice on my set up and lighting.  I have learned quite a bit of information that I have been trying to improve on from my previous blog pictures.

Thanks for looking.  I hope you enjoy my card.

#9 - love is in the air

 

This week's challenge at Shopping our Stash is to use a heart on your project.  I got this background die that is a super weird size and thought I would try it our...it has lots of hearts but was really finicky to use....may be my first and last time with it....but all in all I think it came out okay??  Play along with us, will you?

#8- I need a coffee

 

This week's challenge at Shopping our Stash is to use coffee or tea on your project.  I made several of these cards to use for gift cards from Starbucks.  It is kind of like their logo, yet not really and is sure a nice way to get a gift card.  Play along with us, will you?

#1-7 use the new

 This week's challenge at Shopping our Stash is to use all of your new items that you received or bought yourself over the holidays - I have to admit that I have done a ton of scrappy shopping at all the sales for Black Friday and Boxing Day and the items are slowly trickling in.  I am really focusing on using all that I purchase and have lots of crafty goals for this year.  Here are a few of the cards I made with some of the new items that are here :)

#116-120 - red white and black all over

 This week's challenge Shopping our Stash is to do a project that is red, white and black all over...the perfect challenge for me this time around as most of the paper packs I am using for Christmas this year are following along that colour scheme...here are a few to look at.  Play along with us, will you?