Hi friends! Altenew is hosting a blog hop to celebrate their latest release of fabulous stamps, dies, Press Plates, stencils, supplies, and more! You should have arrived here from Agnieszka, and your next stop is Jaycee. You can also start back at the beginning of the hop at the Altenew Blog. The April 2024 release is filled with more of the beautiful florals, textures, sentiments, and design elements that you’ve come to expect from Altenew each month; I find the new Press Plates to be particularly thrilling! I have been really leaning into blue lately, in lots of different intensities and in different color combinations. I have a pair of crisp blue and white cards using the new goodies to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!
My color combination was inspired by the beautiful blues in the newer Woodland Garden alcohol markers set. I find myself reaching for blues frequently in the springtime; I find something about their crispness and vivid colors to be so clean and a great palate cleanser for the intense and rich colors to which I’ve been drawn during the fall and winter months.
For this first project, I used the newer Woodland Garden alcohol markers to do some no-line coloring with the Build-A-Garden: Morning Glory set. I stamped the image on some alcohol marker-friendly white cardstock using a very pale gray ink, then colored the image with the blues and greens in the Woodland Garden alcohol marker set. I always struggle getting the details of the flower centers perfect, but I used the yellow and tan Acrylic Markers after I had finished my alcohol marker coloring to add those tiny details. The opacity of the Acrylic Markers worked perfectly for the flower centers! I die cut the finished image with the coordinating die, included in the Build-A-Garden: Morning Glory set.
After I had finished my floral focal point, I used the Blue Mountains Fresh Dye Ink quartet with the background stencil included in the Build-A-Garden: Morning Glory set. This background image reminds me of a fence along which the morning glory vines can creep! I kept my color palette crisp and clean, adding some blue “sky” by lightly blending the lightest blue from the Blue Mountains set on the opposite corner of the panel. I trimmed off the edge of the stenciled and blended panel and added a strip of coordinating blue glitter paper from the Blue Crystals glitter cardstock pack to add some glitz to my card front. I popped up the floral die cut with some foam adhesive, allowing it to spill over the side and onto the “fence,” then heat embossed a greeting from Build-A-Garden: Morning Glory using white embossing powder onto some vellum, popping it up with a double layer of clear foam adhesive. Finally, I added some extra sparkle using some iridescent clear gems from the new Smokey Quartz Gems pack!
My second card features the beautiful new Baroque Elegance Press Plate. The Fresh Dye Ink line has one other fabulous facet besides its vibrant color palette: its thicker viscosity works beautifully with the Better Press! I used the Alpine Aster ink from the Blue Mountains Fresh Dye Ink quartet to press the Baroque Elegance image onto some letter press paper, then trimmed the panel down to slightly smaller than A2 size and blended Crystal Violet around the edges of the background. I mounted it on a panel of coordinating blue A2 cardstock, leaving a thin darker blue frame around the edge.
After I had created my background, I die cut the new Sparkled Frame die from some creamy white foil cardstock. The warmth of this foil cardstock worked very nicely with the creamy letter press paper! I also die cut a greeting from the new Timeless Sentiments 2 die, cutting the detail layer from some Blue Crystals glitter cardstock pack and the coordinating shadow from some lightweight vellum to allow that pretty letter press pattern to show through. I oriented the frame so that it was hanging off the side of the card front and trimmed the excess, then popped the frame up with some foam adhesive. I adhered the greeting within the confines of the frame, then embellished the frame with some new Deep Sea Sapphire gems. Such a simple, crisp, clean card!
Well, that’s all for my projects today! 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 $50 gift certificate to 4 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 04/17/2024 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 5 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 04/19/2024.
*The winner of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog.
Here’s the full hop list in case you get lost:
Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!
