Hi there! Today, we are celebrating Altenew’s Exotic Garden stamp and die release with a blog hop! You should have arrived here from Vicky Papaioannou, and your next stop is Carol Hintermeier. I have two super girly and super pink projects featuring some gorgeous new floral layering stencils and a gigantic, stunning floral bouquet stamp, so let’s get started with the details!
These layering stencils are all the rage right now, and I am totally here for it. I love how much dimension you can get from these layering stencils; plus, there are so many fun ink combinations and techniques that you can do with them! The new Bitterroot Layering Stencil and coordinating die set are so, so fun and so beautiful. I love that you can create the bouquet with foliage or the individual flowers, and I’ve shown both on my first project.
I began by blending the Bitterroot Layering Stencil and coordinating die set using a wide variety of inks (the color guide on the back of the packaging is so helpful in making color choices!) on some plain white cardstock. I used eight different colors to achieve these die cuts: Cosmic Berry, Razzleberry, Rubellite, Pinkalicious, Pink Diamond, Plum, Galactic Storm, and Teal Cave! So much fun and so much dimension! I die cut the finished stenciled flowers using the coordinating dies.
For the greeting, I die cut the Mega Hope from some Cosmic Berry cardstock (included in the Rose Petal Gradient Cardstock set) and heat embossed a greeting from Mega Greetings 4 on a strip of the same Cosmic Berry cardstock using white embossing powder. I arranged all of the die cuts and sentiment pieces on a white card front (to make those pretty pinks really pop!) and adhered them with the Instant Dimension Foam Tape. I added a few pink gems for some sparkle and to fill in some bare spots.
My second project features the absolutely stunning new Simply Spring stamp set. (There is also a coordinating die, which is going to be super fun to play with, as well!) Because this image is just totally massive, I decided to make a slimline card with the partial bouquet as the focal point of the card. I began by stamping the image on a slimline cardstock panel using Obsidian Black Ink, then clear embossing over the sticky pigment ink. This technique is great for people who are not as comfortable with watercoloring, because the heat embossing helps to kind of contain the color and keep the colors from bleeding into each other.
I used Rubellite, Purple Wine, Persian Blue, Fresh Lemon, Emerald, and Dusk Watercolor Brush Marker Refills, Altenew’s Round Paintbrushes, and lots of water to paint the image. I began by taping down the paper to my watercolor board, then wetting the watercolor cardstock thoroughly and dropping very diluted color all over the image. In spite of the embossed wells to help keep the colors crisp, I wanted all of the colors to kind of bleed together to create an ethereal look and help add some interest and colorful variation to the flowers themselves. Once my base layer of pale color had dried, I began adding more concentrated color to the blooms and foliage.
Once my watercolor had dried, I removed the panel from my watercolor board and trimmed it down slightly, then matted it on a full size slimline panel of black cardstock. I added a greeting from Simply Spring that I’d heat embossed on a smaller rectangle of black cardstock, which I popped up with some more Instant Dimension Foam Tape. Following the “rule of threes,” I decided to add one more black accent with some black gems scattered down the card front.
Well, that’s all for my projects today! Now, as always, Altenew has some awesome giveaways to celebrate their latest release:
$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 2 lucky winners and a $25 gift certificate to 8 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 05/10/2021 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 10 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 05/12/2021.
Your next stop is Carol Hintermeier. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!
