spark joy

Altenew June 2023 Marvelous Monthly Series Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

June 18, 2023

Hi there! Today, Altenew is hopping along to celebrate their new June Marvelous Monthly release! You should have arrived here from Seeka, and your next stop is Laura Jane. You can also start back at the beginning at the Altenew Blog. I have a pair of bold red, black, white, and gold projects to share with you today using the new Build-A-Garden Japanese Anemone and Spark Joy: Sweet Greetings sets from the June 2023 Marvelous Monthly Release, so let’s get started with the details!

I kept my color palette simple, with pops of bright red and stark black, adding some luxurious golden metallic accents here and there on both projects!

For my first project, I did some no-line watercoloring with the Build-A-Garden Japanese Anemone using my favorite Altenew Artists’ 24 Pan Watercolor Set. A friend of mine used deep red anemone flowers in her wedding bouquet, which are such uniquely beautiful flowers with their deep black centers, so I was channeling those flowers when painting this card! After watercoloring, I splattered the flowers with some deep gold metallic paint to add some artsy textural interest to the flowers. I die cut the finished painting with the coordinating die which is included with the Build-A-Garden Japanese Anemone.

To accent the black centers of the anemones, I die cut the Leaf Frame Cover Die from some black cardstock and mounted it on an A2 panel of white cardstock. I really love the contrast between the deep black and the crisp white. It looks a little exotic to me… so fun!

For the greeting, I die cut the “hello” from the Spark Joy: Sweet Greetings set using gold glitter cardstock for the detail layer, and the outline layer from more black cardstock. I also embossed a greeting from the Japanese Anemone set on a smaller rectangle of blakc cardstock using Altenew’s Rose Gold embossing powder, which worked beautifully with the metallic glitter die cut layer. I popped all of the layers up using foam adhesive for tons of dimension on this project!

My second project features the beautiful hot foiled arched frame from the Spark Joy: Sweet Greetings set and the coordinating add-on die. I used Altenew’s Brass foil to hot foil the archway onto some crisp white cardstock, as well as the “greetings” sentiment included in the Sweet Greetings set.

For the sweet bird, I used blending brushes with the layering stencils included in the Spark Joy: Sweet Greetings set with Rouge, Crimson, Evening Gray, and Lava Rock inks to create a unique warm gray and red bird reminiscent of a robin. I die cut some foliage using the Itty Bitty Branches dies, adding some Crimson and Lava Rock to some of the details on the die cuts, which creates a bit of extra interest on the white die cuts. I arranged the flowers and foliage across the bottom of the hot foiled frame, nestling the bird amongst the branches. I popped up all of the die cut pieces with foam tape, finally adding some gems for sparkle!

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 $40 gift certificate to 5 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 06/21/2023 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 6 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 06/23/2023.
*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!

Altenew April 2023 Marvelous Monthly Series Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

April 18, 2023

Hi there! We are hopping along today to share inspiration using the brand new Marvelous Monthly collection for April 2023. You should have arrived here from the Altenew Blog and your next stop is Mindy Eggen. This release features some fun new Dual Tip Pens and a new series, called Dynamic Duo, in addition to the series regulars that we know and love! I have two projects to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details.

The new Dynamic Duo: Treat Yourself features some fabulous layering stencils and a small stamp set that you can use to create quick and fun blended birthday cards! I began by ink blending the sentiment from the Treat Yourself stencil set using Midnight Violet and Pinkalicious inks. I also blended a bunch of fluttering balloons around the sentiment, adding in some Dark Night ink to add a touch of drama.

I also blended several flowers and foliage using the same inks, then cut them out with my sharp scissors. I stamped a sentiment strip to coordinate with the happy birthday sentiment using the Dark Night ink, popping all of the individual elements up with some foam adhesive to make them stand out from the background. I also added a few gems to help add some sparkle! I love that this card was made almost entirely from ink blending… such a different look from my normal meticulously colored projects, but definitely a fun way to create a cute birthday card!

My next card features more of my traditional crafting techniques, this time using the beautiful new Spark Joy: Festive Flowers. The Spark Joy series focuses on hot foiling, and comes complete with a set of layering stencils to make adding color to your hot foiled images a breeze. I, however, prefer to use my favorite coloring mediums to add lots of vibrant color and shading to the images. I began by hot foiling the Festive Flowers image onto some white cardstock using Altenew’s Brass hot foil roll. I colored the images using the Mystic Garden Alcohol Markers. The lilies in the arrangement worked beautifully with the colors of the Mystic Garden set.

After I’d finished coloring the image, I used a blending tool to blend some Dark Night ink around the edge of the panel. Allowing the white to remain around the image itself while the edge of the card is dark and vibrant creates a kind of halo around the image, highlighting it.

For the greeting, I added a hot foiled “hello,” created using more Brass hot foil and Versatile Greetings hot foil plate + dies. I also heat embossed a sentiment strip using the Thinking of You stamp set. I popped both of these sentiment pieces up with some foam tape, finally adding a few more shimmering gems to add one last textural element to the card front.

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 $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 04/24/2023 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 04/26/2023. *The winner of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog.

Your next stop is Mindy Eggen. Here’s the full hop list:

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

Altenew February 2023 Marvelous Monthly Series Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

February 17, 2023

Hi friends! Welcome to Altenew’s Marvelous Monthly Blog Hop for February 2023! I have all of the stops linked at the bottom of the post, or you can start at the beginning at the Altenew Blog. This month’s new products are absolutely stunning, and I’ve kept things cool and breezy with a blue color palette accented with pops of rose gold. The Spark Joy: Lily Bouquet and Craft Your Life Project Kit: Eclectic Bouquet are some seriously stunning new floral sets that are complete with their own layering stencils to make it a breeze to add color to your projects if you are not in the mood for coloring! Here’s a peek at this month’s Spark Joy: Lily Bouquet product duo:

And the Craft Your Life Project Kit: Eclectic Bouquet:

These incredible kits are available as subscriptions each month at a discount, so if you’re loving them as much as I do, I encourage you to check out the information on how to subscribe HERE. I have two cool blue stenciled projects to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

Both of my projects were created using the new kits, the Blue Mountain ink quartet, and the Frosted Foliage ink quartet. I love the combination of these two ink families; the cool blues and almost turquoise greens work so beautifully together!

I began my first project by hot foiling the Spark Joy-Lily Bouquet using Rose Gold Foil onto some crisp white cardstock. The satin foil from Altenew is so elegant and understated; it is beautiful without being overly flashy! Next, I used the included layering stencils with the Blue Mountain ink quartet and the Frosted Foliage ink quartet, adding some extra shading to the centers of the flowers just to add a little extra interest. I also ink blended around the edges very lightly to create a halo of white around the floral image itself, highlighting it and drawing the eye to the center!

After I had finished ink blending with the stencils, I used the Fancy Enjoy die to die cut a dimensional greeting, first from some coordinating metallic glitter cardstock, then twice more from some scrap white cardstock. I adhered all of the die cuts together using liquid adhesive and adhered them directly in the center of my blended card front, over the top of the blended bouquet.

To finish off the greeting, I heat embossed the One-Go Birthday Greetings using Rose Gold Embossing Powder. I cut all of the greeting strips out with one pass through my die cut machine using the handy dandy die (or buy both in a bundle). I popped the greeting up over the flourish beneath the “enjoy” die cut, adhering it with a double layer of foam tape to help it be really visible. The final touch was a few metallic gems for one more touch of shine.

My second project uses the Craft Your Life Project Kit: Eclectic Bouquet, which I heat embossed onto white cardstock using Rose Gold Embossing Powder. I used the layering stencils included in the kit with the Blue Mountain ink quartet and the Frosted Foliage ink quartet to create another lovely, cool blue bouquet.

I wanted to create a mini slimline card with the flowers kind of exploding off of the one side, so after die cutting the finished stenciled image, I ruthlessly ran my trimmer down the center of the image. I arranged the die cut pieces in a cluster along the side of my white mini slimline card front (3.5″x6″), then used some small pieces of Satin Masking Tape to keep my arrangement in place on my card front. I placed my card front inside my MISTI, then arranged the solid foliage stamps included in the Craft Your Life Project Kit: Eclectic Bouquet stamp set and removed my stenciled die cuts. I heat embossed the solid foliage stamps using more Rose Gold Embossing Powder, then blended some more pale blue ink over the top to create a halo.

I adhered the stenciled die cuts to my card front using Instant Dimension foam tape, then added the heat embossed greeting die cut with a double layer of foam tape to make it pop. Finally, I added a few more coordinating metallic gems for some more sparkle!

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 FULL RELEASE BUNDLE to 1 grand prize winner and a $25 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 February 22, 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 February 24, 2023. *The grand prize winner will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew Card Blog.

Here’s the full hop list:

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!