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Good morning! Today, the folks at Altenew are hopping along to celebrate the newest Marvelous Monthly release for March, 2023! These monthly subscription series are always such fun and a great value, providing so many different elements to create a huge variety of stunning cards. I have two cards to share with you today, featuring the new Build-A-Garden: Dancing Poppies and Craft Your Life Project Kit: Delicate Garden. Here’s a peek at the two different sets that I’ll be using today:

I love that you receive so many different elements in each kit so that you can mix and match, depending on what kind of coloring medium (or none at all!) that you feel like using that day! If you are loving these kits as much as I am, you can always SUBSCRIBE to be sure that you receive a kit each month (and at a discount!). Let’s get started on the details for my projects today!

I love the juxtaposition of crisp black accents and softly colored flowers, and it was this color combination that I had in mind when creating both of these cards. I used Spicy Yogurt cardstock with coral, peach, and mint with intense black accents to create this pair of cards!

For my first card, I stamped the images from Dancing Poppies onto some watercolor paper using Obsidian pigment ink, then clear embossed over the top, which helps to add a level of crispness to the stamping. I used the Artists’ 24 Pan Watercolor Set to add some soft pinky coral to the poppy flowers and some pale minty green to the leaves. I used the one-and-done die to die cut all of the watercolored flowers.

For the background, I wanted to highlight those shiny black lines and dramatic black centers on the watercolored poppies, so I layered together the Rattan Stripes Cover Die twice from some black cardstock, then the Garden Trellis cover plate cut once from black cardstock, to create this unique, super textured, layered background. I adhered all three pieces to a Spicy Yogurt cardstock base using liquid adhesive.

For the greeting, I die cut the “thanks” Sweet Sentiment dies from black and Spicy Yogurt cardstock to coordinate nicely with the creamy background and the watercolor paper itself. I arranged the flowers on my rattan card front, popping them up with Instant Dimension Foam Tape, then added the greeting at the bottom. The final step was to add some gems for sparkle!

My second project features the stunning new Craft Your Life Project Kit: Delicate Garden. I began by stamping all of the floral images in the stamp set using Obsidian pigment ink, then clear embossed over the top to again create those super crisp black lines on my white cardstock. I used the coordinating stencils included in the kit to do some subtle, soft ink blending, creating peachy and minty bouquets using Strawberry, Pink Pearl, Coral Bliss, and Coral Berry inks for the flowers, and Green Meadows inks for the foliage. I die cut all of the blended flowers using the coordinating dies, included with the kit.

I loved each of the floral bouquets so much that I couldn’t bear to leave one off of the card, so I expanded my canvas and created a slimline card front to display them all properly! I created the base from more Spicy Yogurt cardstock, then die cut a large Nesting Slim Labels panel, upon which I stamped some of the floral bouquets again using Obsidian pigment ink, then clear embossed over the top. I popped up the embossed label die cut on the slimline card front using some more Instant Dimension Foam Tape, then arranged the blended florals in a pretty swag down the front of the card. I adhered the bouquet with more foam tape, to create a double layer of foam tape along the edges of the die cut. So much height!

I heat embossed the greetings from the Delicate Garden using the Obsidian and clear embossing powder combination, then fussy cut them with my sharp scissors. I popped those images up from the card front using yet another layer of foam tape, for a grand total of three layers of foam tape in the center of the card! Definitely a card to be hand delivered or placed inside a package, ha. Finally, I added a few black crystals for one last pop of black and touch of 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 March 23, 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 March 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!

Good morning! Today marks the start of a new subscription from Altenew: Build-A-Garden! We’re hopping along to celebrate this newest addition to the Altenew subscription family. You should have arrived here from Vicky Papaioannou, and your next stop is Cheryl Espie. You can also start back at the beginning at the Altenew Card Blog. Here’s a bit about the new series from Altenew:

Enjoy our Build-A-Garden project set, an exciting monthly package that is sure to get the creative juices flowing! Each month includes a stamp set along with a coordinating stencil set and/or die set PLUS a customer-favorite Mini Blending Brush! Build your collection of brushes from month to month so you will never be left looking for the perfect tool while crafting.

This set contains the following products:
– one 6″ x 8″ stamp set containing 10 stamps made in the USA from high-quality photopolymer
– one layering stencil set containing 4 stencils that coordinate with the stamp set
– one Mini Blending Brush for ink blending
Note: These products are NOT sold separately.

If this new series sounds like something you can’t live without each month (that blending brush is such an awesome addition to the kit!), you can subscribe to be guaranteed to receive the new set each month-and at a discount!! Click HERE to see all of the details on how you can subscribe!

This initial installment is called Magnificent Branch, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. It features a long branch filled with beautiful blooms and greenery, large enough when stamped to create two card fronts! You can color to your heart’s content with your favorite coloring medium, or you can use the included layering stencils to create a unique color blocked look with your favorite stenciling technique! Here’s a peek at this month’s kit:

Incredibly beautiful, right? I chose to create a custom patterned paper with the main stamp by angling it different ways along the edge of my paper. Let’s get started with the details on my project!

I began by stamping the image from Magnificent Branch a few different times on white cardstock with Copic-friendly black ink, angling it different ways so as to create some custom patterned paper and covering the majority of the A2 card front. I colored the image with Copic markers in a lovely feminine color scheme featuring mauve, pale pink, and jade green.

Once I had finished coloring all of the images stamped on the card front, I used my T-square and a black pen from the Fine Liner Pen set to add a very thin, subtle frame around the edges to help highlight the beautiful images and add another element of black to the card front.

For the greeting, I white embossed one of the sentiments included in the Magnificent Branch stamp set onto some black cardstock, which I then popped up using foam tape on the colored card front. Finally, I added a trio of black gems for one more touch of black, as well as some sparkle on this matte card front.

Well, that’s all for my project today! Now for some fun giveaway information:

$200 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 2 lucky winners and a $20 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 05/07/2022 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 7 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 05/09/2022.

Your next stop is Cheryl Espie. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!