Category: General

Alhamdulilah, finally I have reached out to my last assignment of level 1 at the altenew educator certification program. Fingers are crossed for the final project now. Like most of my fellow cardmakers, I always tend to make a feminine greeting card. It’s really rare that I make cards for the guys.

But today I have 2 reasons to make one. First of all, recently I attended a course,” for the guys” at the altenew academy. And I was looking for ideas to make a card with this theme. Secondly, I had a small fight with my hubby, and I think this is the best way to sort it out than sitting around a table talking for hours and finally reaching nowhere. Due to the current lockdown situation, I couldn’t go out shopping to get him some flowers. So I decided to inculcate all of this into my card.

As usual, I trimmed a Neenah classic crest solar white cardstock into 4 * 5 1 /4. I stamped a flower from Simon Says Stamp Exclusive 6×8 Stronger Together clear stamp set on the center of my card. As I wanted to give a try on the no borderline coloring, I stamped it with very pale distress ink from Rangers.

I colored the green leafy parts of it with the forest glades artistic marker from Altenew. For the red, I choose Ruby red artistic markers. The same markers were used throughout the making of the card. In order to get the darker shade of the same color, I colored over it again in certain areas of the flower. I gave an outline to the flower with the fine tip of my artistic markers.

I choose a sentiment from the versatile vases from Altenew and stamped it with Ruby Red crisp die ink. It was stamped towards the lower center of the card, just below the flower. To get a finished look, I trimmed a green cardstock paper into 4 1/4*5 1/2 sized cardstock and stuck it behind my white cardstock.

I gave it to him when he was back from the office. I was really delighted to see his reaction. Everything was worth the effort and time I took for making it. He said he loved it so much and would cherish it forever. Especially the sentiment, It made him realize that he was still on my thoughts even if we had a tough time. I don’t know if this could be considered as a masculine card, but I’m glad that it fulfilled my purpose.

I hope this method of making a simple Masculine card will turn out to be a inspiration for you too. Do give it a try to learn this course at https://altenew.com/products/for-the-guys. I hope to see you all soon with another project from AECP. Until then happy stamping and thanks for stopping by!

-shahi

Hi, welcome back to a new blog. Hope you all are doing great.

Today’s blog is based on the Irresistible Inking Techniques taught by Sara Nauman at Altenew academy. This course helps us to stretch the purpose of our ink pads! It teaches us how to give new life to them by thinking outside the box. I never used my stamps for anything else other than stamping or ink Blending. So literally this course made me do things outside the box.

This is the first time I’m trying to color something with watercolor brushes. So eagerly waiting for your opinions and suggestions.

I took Neenah classic white cardstock and trimmed it into 4*5 1/4. I decided to use Happy pomegranates from Altenew for this project. I stamped the green leafy parts of the picture with just green altenew crisp die ink. And the red pomegranate parts with the heart beat crisp die ink from Altenew. Then I stamped these inks on my Altenew Watercolor Palette. Its light-colored surface ensures an accurate representation of our ink color and is smooth and sturdy. It’s perfect for our artistic needs, especially for the ones who play with colors.

I painted the pomegranates with these colors using a watercolor brush. I used the fine tip brush to paint the border and filled the inside part with a size medium watercolor brush. The tip retains its shape allowing for both broad strokes and fine detail work. I was really nervous about the coloring part, as this is my first painting with the watercolor brushes.

Ones the painting is dried, I trimmed a strip from the black cardstock and stamped out the sentiment from Mudra “Islamic festive” stamp set. I stamped it again with versa fine ink. And heat embossed it with Wow gold embossing powder. That trimmed sentiment strip was placed on the right middle corner of the card. I also trimmed a red cardstock paper into 4 1/4*5 1/2 and placed it behind the white one. This time I positioned it towards the lower right side of the card. So that the red color is focused on a single side of the card.

I hope this method will turn out to be an inspiration for you too. Do give it a try to learn this course at https://altenew.com/products/irresistible-inking-techniques

I hope to see you all soon with another project from AECP. Until then happy stamping and thanks for stopping by!

-shahi

As I complete my projects one by one, of level 1, it’s getting real fun at the Altenew educator certification program. My today’s task is to make a card based on the lesson, Let it shine. This class literally helped me to determine some of the best ways to add shine to my projects and WOW others!

I trimmed a black card stock into 4 1/45 1/2. And placed an orange card stock on it. As it was about the size 3 3/4 *5, there was enough room for the black card stock paper to be seen. I choose the Fabulous Florets Stamp Set from Altenew for this project. So I placed it on my card stock and stamped the top flower with Caramel toffee Altenew crisp die ink and the bottom flower with the Autumn blaze Altenew crisp die ink. The second layer was done with the versafine Onyx black ink.

Then I prepared my card surface with some sort of anti-static powder tool. This fine layer of powder will prevent embossing powder from sticking to areas where you don’t want it to stick. Then I used Versa mark ink. It’s a clear sticky ink that can be used for embossing, or for watermark images. Then I applied some Hero Arts clear embossing powder on my card stock. Embossing powders can make any stamped image shiny and dimensional. And it’s easy to do. There are basic embossing powders, clear and white, that leave a hint of shine.

Here, I choose clear embossing powder as I wanted my flowers to shine in its original color which I have stamped. (Orange and black). Before heat setting the embossing powder, I used a dry brush to sweep away any stray pieces of embossing powder. These little specs will expand as they heat and turn into blobs. Quickly brushing away strays will give you great results every time. I allowed my heat gun to heat up to its hottest point before taking it to the paper. This will minimize the amount of time it takes for the powder to melt and will minimize warping. Once the embossing powder is melted, I moved my heat gun. We should not heat it in one place for too long. Once the grainy appearance goes away, and you see a bit of shine, you’re all set to move on.

I had a sudden change in plan while making my card. In fact, in happens most of the time. I never stick on to my planned project. But, isn’t it good? Because you end up making things better. Here I decided to softly blend the corners of the card with the same dieink with which I stamped my flowers at the start of my project.

For the sentiment, I decided to choose the Simon Says Stamp BIG THANKS Shadow Wafer Dies. I die cut the glitter card stock with the base wafer dies using my die cutting machine and the black card stock with the thin front wafer dies. It’s was positioned and stuck in the middle of the card.
Isn’t it so simple. I hope this method will turn out to be an inspiration for you too. Do give it a try to learn this course at https://altenew.com/products/let-it-shine I hope to see you all soon with another project from AECP. Until then, happy stamping and thanks for stopping by!

-shahi

My today’s project mainly focuses on The Build-A-Flower: Canterbury Bells from Altenew. This stamp set contains a beautiful assortment of hanging bell-shaped flowers. Unlike many other Build-A-Flower stamp sets, this set contains the entire flower: stem, leaves, and all.

To create today’s project I initially decided to make a stencil for my stamp set. Take out a black rectangle heavy cardstock which is slightly bigger than my stamp set. Die-cut it through my sizzix big shot die cutting machine. Take out the die-cut piece from it, leaving the inner space empty. The coordinating stencil is right in front of u.

Here for my current project, I die cut a piece of Neenah classic crest solar white cardstock and placed it on the stencil. I decided to use the Mini Misti today, which can help me stamp the flower and leaf several times. That’s the main advantage of using a stamp positioner while stamping layering cards. multiple cards can be stamped out very quickly and easily with it. Then I placed my stencil and the diecut in the Misti stamping tool and placed the base layer of the flower on the door with the misti and then stamped it with altenew Baby Pink crisp die ink from the Spring Bouquet collection.

I did this layer twice to get a better dark impression . while learning about stamping the layering cards, I understood that the trick when stamping multiple layers of the image is that each layer stamp is to be placed in the correct position each time. while making multiple cards it is always better to tuck the card into the corner of the misti and make sure that you do that each time you stamp. It’s much easier if you use it with our DIY stencil because it helps us place the next layer stamps on its accurate position.

You can even cut the cards from the brochures which come along with the altenew stamp set. They can be used as a guide for stamping. If you are someone who struggles with aligning your stamps, then this saves a lot of time for you. Take the stamp and line it up on the stamped image on the guide. You can close the door on the misti and start doing the stamp layering on the cardstock. Before stamping the next layer I made sure that my first layer is good and dry as I think this gives the crisper impression if each layer is dry before stamping the next. Ultimately it’s very easy to align the layers and stamp layering set as on the back of the packaging, as altenew has a guide showing which areas of the two layers to watch out for when we are lining them. Then I stamped the other two layers on stamps accordingly. I used fuchsia for the second layer and magenta for the final one. The leaves were stamped by Deep Iris and Lime.

I wanted to give an embossed look to my card. So I took a pink cardstock and ran it through my sizzix big shot along with an embossing folder which I bought long back from an online store. It had a ribbon-like space in the middle where I stamped a thank you sentiment with the versa fine black ink. Later on, I stuck my Canterbury Bells in the middle of the card. The sentiment was split into two sides for placing my diecut in the middle of the card. I gave a slight border to the card by drawing the corners of the cardstock with a pink sharpie marker. In the end, I gave a black base to my main cardstock. I feel like this enhances the total look of the card. I hope this method will turn out to be an inspiration for you too.

Do give it a try to learn this course at https://altenew.com/collections/altenew-academy-classes/products/all-about-layering-2

I hope to see you all soon with another project from AECP. Until then happy stamping and thanks for stopping by!

-shahi