SOS - oh the place you will go

 This week's challenge at Shopping our Stash is to imagine where you would like to go once all of the travel restrictions are lifted and Covid is a thing of the past - whether it is from vaccine, adaptation or elimination of the virus, I am all for it packing it's bags and leaving.  We have been in lockdown here since October 28.  Only in the last three weeks has it been allowable to have up to two designated people at our houses and store are finally open to 25% capacity.  Some restaurants are open but you can only go with family in the same household so lots decided not to open until you can sit with other people because they know most people are sick of only being with their household members so what is the point? lol.  I chose to do my card for somewhere tropical that is warm and sunny...not here.  Somewhere with no snow and beautiful blooming flowers...possibly Hawaii...maybe Fiji or Tahiti...any one will do at this point. Play along with us, will you?

Altenew - Seasonal Scene Building

 Well, I have finished my last class of level one for the Altenew Educators Program.  This one was called Seasonal Scene Building.  This class had so many techniques from masking to shaker cards.  I have done all of these in the past but it was a nice reminder of the different style of scenes that can be made.

I really enjoyed the inside out look of this card.  It was so much fun trying to come up with a surprise inside for this card that didn't give up too much outside of the window so you really want to peek inside.

And then there are the shaker cards.  I love making shaker cards.  They have been some of my favourite cards over the years.  So many options and such a different look for the same technique.  I quite enjoyed the inking on both of the shaker cards with the clouds in the sunset sky (this card mimicked the colour of the sky outside my craft room window at the time that I was making it) and the brick wall effect with embossing and 8 colours of ink.

I was really torn for a favourite between the card with the koi and the macarons.  There are so many stamps and layers involved in the macaron one that it was a labour of love....but the fish have won the vote of the favourite from this class.  I put some grey die cuts underneath and offset from the fish to make them look like shadows of them swimming.

Well, that is the first 10 classes on the journey to becoming certified through the Altenew program....thanks for looking. 

Altenew - Celebration Stencil Techniques

This class for the Altenew Educator's Program was Celebration Stencil Techniques.  I enjoy stencilling but find I do not do it very often.  I am not sure why as it is really fun to get inky and play around with my supplies.    

                                                

I think my favourite technique was making my own stencil from my dies.  The "Thanks"cards were made from my home made thanks stencil with inks and sprays.  I love the look of the ink blended rainbows on the above cards. I also loved the look of the stencil after I was done the three cards and decided it would make a good masculine looking card so I used the spray paint looking stencil to make a card front.  I used the left over letters from the stencil and put them on a shadow to fill in the centre of the stencil.

I also tried some metallic watercolours on some black watercolour card stock on the above card.   It was cool the way the intensity of the watercolours held on with the black card stock in behind.  The card below was made with embossing paste and super chunky glitter.  Note to self - do not use super chunky glitter with embossing paste.  It is not quite strong enough to hold the chunky weight of this glitter and now this card leaves a trail of sparkle wherever it goes lol.

 

Altenew - Irresistible Inking Techniques

 This Altenew class for the Altenew Educators Program is called Irresistible Inking Techniques and to me it was like a throwback Thursday type class.  I am not sure when it was filmed but it brought me back to techniques I haven't used in absolute ages and had really forgotten about.  It was a nice refresher to some old techniques of days gone by.  I tried to put an updated twist for myself on some of the class project assignments. I also appreciated the tip of using a smaller block for smaller stamps as I tend to always use the same block and found that I did have an issue of rocking on my block at times and I hope now that know this I can prevent this from happening in the future.

I think this card was my favourite project because I am not very good or experienced at watercolour techniques so it was a really good reason to practice a little bit.  I used 11 colours of ink in this project (frosty pink, coral berry, ruby red, grapevine, butternut, pumpkin pie, yellow ochre, Sicilian amber, evergreen, forest glades and frayed leaf) and tried my best at blending them out to look like a smooth and natural watercolored flower.

I\

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.