classic greetings

Hi friends! I have some colorful projects using Altenew’s new Crafty Necessities Colored Cardstock, which I also shared as part of the Altenew Crafty Necessities Instagram Hop! I tend to be drawn to the cool blues, purples, and pinks, so I thought I would switch things up for these cards and go for an unusual color palette of coral, red, and aqua using the beautiful gradient shades in the Red Sunset and Sea Shore cardstock bundles. I have three projects to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

For my first card, I wanted vivid flowers to pop from a tranquil Volcano Lake cardstock background, so I die cut some Build-A-Garden: Fragrant Peony die cuts from Rouge and Crimson, cutting several pieces of foliage using the same Volcano Lake cardstock and adding some light ink blending for added dimension. I arranged the colorful die cuts on the Volcano Lake cardstock A2 card front, then added a sparkling and simple greeting cut using the Versatile Greetings sentiment dies and some coordinating turquoise Shimmering Shore glitter cardstock, finishing it off with some shining gems!

I absolutely love the incredible impact that colored cardstock makes with an embossing folder just by adding a few small details. I embossed a panel of Rouge cardstock using the Farmhouse Florals 3D Embossing Folder, offsetting it slightly to the side. I then blended Rouge and Crimson Fresh Dye Ink around the edges and swiped the raised, embossed areas with a white pigment ink pad to help make the gorgeous details stand out. I added another turquoise sentiment, cut from the Shimmering Shore glitter cardstock, vellum, and the Timeless Sentiments die set. The beautiful Rouge cardstock really comes to life even more with those little extra inky details!

For my final project, I used some leftovers from the previous cards to create a colorful striped background. I used my trimmer to cut different widths of Velvet, Crimson, Rouge, Volcano Lake, and Lagoon cardstock strips, as well as some glittering accent strips from the Shimmering Shore glitter cardstock. I cut down a sheet of double sided adhesive and began arranging my cardstock strips in a slightly random pattern. I die cut the detail layer of the Fragrant Flowers die from some pearlescent white cardstock and backed it with a vellum shadow layer, trimming it slightly to create a straight edge. I added a strip of Lagoon over the seam between the edge of the die cut and the Crimson strip on the bottom of the card. For the greeting, I heat embossed a sentiment from Classic Greetings stamps and dies onto Rouge cardstock and popped it up over the lacy die cut, finally finishing everything off with a couple of gems to accent the sentiment strip!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! If you head over to Instagram, you can enter to win some fabulous prizes as part of the Crafty Necessities Instagram Hop. (My Instagram name is @eamidgett.) I am one of many stops with tons of colorful inspiration, so I hope you will hop over there and take a peek! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Hi friends! I am hopping along with Altenew today to help celebrate their new Stamp, Die, Stencil, and Better Press release for November 2023. You should have arrived here from Svitlana, and your next stop is Seeka. You can also start back at the beginning over on the Altenew Blog.

I am absolutely obsessed with the new Better Press Plates included in this release; they are so beautifully detailed and are so versatile. I love that you can use them for letterpress and hot foiling techniques alike!! I have examples of both techniques for today’s hop, so let’s get started with the details!

For my first card, I used the Wild Daisies Press Plate in a very simple layout, allowing the beautiful detail of the plate to be the star of the show. I began by using blending tools to blend Buttercream, Dusty Pink, and Toasted Mauve inks on a panel of Better Press Letter Press paper. These colors are a new combination for me; very warm and a little rustic, but so, so pretty together! After I had blended the entire panel and created a smooth transition between the colors, I used black Better Press ink (which comes with the system) with the Wild Daisies Press Plate in the center of the blended panel. I also splattered some Metallic Watercolors in complementary shades on the background and set it aside to dry.

While my blended and splattered panel was drying, I used the Classical Sentiments Press Plates to press a greeting. These press plates coordinate with the dies for the Classic Greetings product suite, so I used the coordinating die to cut it out. I love that the products all work together, depending on which technique you want to put to use for that project! I also blended the sentiment die cut with residual ink on my blending brushes from blending the background panel so that it would coordinate nicely with the color-saturated background. I added a thin black frame cut using the Fine Frames Cover Die die. A few black gems added some sparkle! The level of elegance that the letterpress technique adds to your cards is absolutely incredible. I can’t wait to do some watercoloring with these beautiful floral images!

My second card features the Billowing Flower Press Plate, which I paired with my Glimmer Hot Foil machine to create this elegant foiled image. I used Altenew’s Brass hot foil to hot foil the detailed floral image onto some black cardstock. I think the versatility between letterpress and hot foil techniques is what really sold me on this system; there are so many fun things that you can do with them!

For the greeting, I die cut the detail layer of the Thank You die from the Timeless Sentiments die set, cut from Brushed Gold Foil Cardstock. I backed it with a black glitter cardstock outline, in order to add another element of texture to the card. Adding textural interest to each layer of my monochromatic cards is a quick way to keep things interesting while still remaining loyal to your color scheme. I trimmed down the foiled floral panel and popped it up on a black Dotted Scales cover plate die with some foam adhesive. I popped up the thank you die cut greeting with another layer of foam tape, making it a double layer to give it a bit more emphasis. The final touch was a few shining black gems for one last layer of texture and shine!

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 11/12/2023 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 11/14/2023.
*The winners 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!