Good morning! Today is the day… the long-ancitipated Stampwheel from Altenew is finally officially here! This exciting new tool debuted at NAMTA last spring, and is finally available to preorder! The Stampwheel is an innovative, multi-purpose tool, making stamping, stenciling, and blending super easy. We are doing a blog hop today to share lots of fun inspiration on how to use this new crafty tool! You can see the full hop list below or on the Altenew Card Blog.
After some experimenting with the Stampwheel, I found that the most unique way to use it was with layering stencils, a product category that Altenew does so very well! I sometimes find stencils to be a bit futzy to create with, having to fuss with washi tape, adhesive sprays, magnets etc, in order to achieve crisp blending, but the amazing photopolymer Stage (the base) on the Stampwheel creates an “adhesive” background upon which your card base can adhere cleanly and easily, while your stencil adheres to the photopolymer around your card base
For my project today, I created a card using the beautiful Greenwood Flowers layering stencil set. I began by placing my A2 card front on the photopolymer Stage of the Stampwheel. This Stage is basically a giant photopolymer stamp, flat on one side and gridded lines on the other. The flat “sticky” side is the side upon which you adhere your cardstock; if it becomes less sticky, simply wipe it with clean water and allow it to air dry, just like you would your regular photopolymer stamps! I adhered the white card front in the center of the photopolymer Stage, then placed my stencils over the top and did my ink blending. The sticky surface of the Stage creates a perfect seal around the entirety of card front so that your stencil will be hard pressed to move whilst you’re blending! No need to fuss with washi tape, adhesive spray, or copy paper anymore. So easy!
After I had quickly blended my floral pattern on my card front, I wanted to create a color-coordinated sentiment by using the same purple inks that I used for my flowers. I die cut the Fancy For You from some white cardstock, then adhered it to the Stage. I then used my blending brushes to blend the Shades of Purple inks over the plain white die cut while it was still attached to the Stage. This die cut is super intricate and a bit finicky for ink blending, so normally to do this I would have to keep it in the negative space and add washi tape to the back to keep the die cut from moving, but being able to adhere it to the Stampwheel’s Stage made the process super quick and simple! Once I had finished ink blending, I used Altenew’s Stamp Cleaner and a microfiber cloth to whisk away any remnants of ink left on the photopolymer. It worked beautifully! I did have some staining from some red ink on a different project, but it doesn’t affect the stickiness at all. It just looks well-loved.
Once I had finished all of my ink blending, I die cut a label shape from the Labels and Tags 2 die set using some heavyweight vellum. The opaque die cut softens the background pattern to allow the blended sentiment die cut to stand out. I adhered the greeting to the vellum, then flipped it over and added some foam tape to the solid areas on the back side of the vellum, hiding the adhesive to keep it from marring the vellum. I added a few glittery butterflies cut using the Mix and Match Mariposa dies and Dazzling Diamond glitter cardstock. A few minty green gems finished it off. Colorful, springy, and pops of sparkle scream spring!
Well, that’s all for my project using the brand new Stampwheel! This new tool is sure to be an excellent addition to your crafty bag of tricks, with some super unique uses that make it a great complement to the tools you already have in your craft room. The current stock is already sold out, but the next round of Stampwheel products are available for preorder! Click HERE to see all of the details.
Now for some fun giveaway information!
$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $20 gift certificate to 10 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 04/05/2023 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 11 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 04/07/2023.*The winner of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog.
Here’s the full hop list:
Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!
