CAS Boutique Cards

Good Morning! I'm having a lazy day today, the heat is just too much to get busy!

My post today is all about Clean and Simple Boutique Cards - the third course in my Altenew Educator Certification Program. I have made 3 cards that are all CAS:

My first card was from lesson one simple styling, I've covered this by doing a single rose in the center of my card and a very simple sentiment:

I used Altenew's Painted Rose stamp set, stamping the layers of the rose with Rose Quartz, Puffy Heart and Purple Wine inks from the Rose Petal Mini Cube Set. I stamped the leaves with Frayed Leaf and then loosely drew the outline of them with a Faber Castell Pitt pen. Lastly I used a sentiment from Altenew Heartfelt Sentiments and stamped it with jet black ink.

 For my next card I used lesson 2 - Stamped backgrounds:

For this card I used one of the stamps from Wild Fern Stamp Set and stamped it multiple times on my card in  Just Green Ink. I then mixed some watercolor marker ink with water and, using a paint brush, made splatters cover the card front.

The sentiment, again from the Wild fern Stamp Set, was stamped in versamark ink and I heat embossed this with white embossing powder onto a strip of black card. This was then adhered on to my card.

My last card was my favorite technique and one I wasn't aware of. I added foiling:

This is a great technique if you don't have alternate ways of foiling. I do have a foil press but can't use that with my stamps! 

I used Altenew's Dahlia Blossoms, picked one of the layers of both the smaller and large flower and stamped this in Buttercream Ink. Then came the magic. I used my antistatic bag across my card and stamped the outline of the flowers with Stayzon ink. I heat embossed this with clear embossing powder. I had to repeat this step 3 times to get a thick enough outline for the foil to stick to. Following the embossing I laid Minc foil over the images and sent it through a laminator which had been heating up for a while. Once my card had cooled I removed the foil sheet and was left with a gorgeous rose pink foiled outline on my dahlias.

I went on to stamp the leaves from the Dahlia stamp set and some more from Altenew's beautiful Day stamp set. 

As I loved the foiling so much I had to do more! I chose a sentiment die from my stash. I die cut this in both black and white. I covered the white version in Stayzon ink and dipped it into my embossing ink. Again I repeated this 2 more times then covered it with foil and ran it through my laminator and it worked! I adhered this to the black diecut, slightly offsetting it so I had a black shadow to my foiled sentiment. This was then glued to my card.

This was my favorite lesson from the whole Clean and Simple Boutique Card course and I will be using frequently!!

Thanks for checking out my post - I hope it gave you some inspiration and if you like what you see please leave me some love in the comment section

All About Layering 2

Good evening! It's been a warm one today which doesn't help my pain but hey cool air in the house and a well stocked craft room helps me get by!

Tonight's post is to showcase the work I have done for the Altenew Educators Certification Program and is the 2nd class I have taken - All about Layering 2.

My first card uses the gorgeous Peony Bouquet stamp set. I love this set, It's an older one but the stamps layered together make some stunning flowers:

What I Did:

I started the card with white cardstock and using the palest of the ink collections I stamped the Peony outline and leaves in random positions.

Then using Nicole's technique of stamping, I stamped the 4 layers in the beautiful purple soft colors and layered the coordinating leaves.

As I don't own the dies for this set (yet!) I fussy cut the flower and leaves leaving a white edge.

I decided where the flower was going to be positioned on my background and then used the same ink as the flower outline to stamp my sentiment.

My background was then adhered to a 4/14 x 51/2 inch card base and my flower and leaves positioned with foam tape.

What I Used:

Stamps: Flowers: Altenew - Peony Bouquet

             Sentiment: Altenew - Dahlia Blossoms

Stamping Card: Neenah Solar White

Ink: Flower: Altenew - Sugar Plum Oval Set; Pale Mauve, Amethyst, Grape Agate & Plum

        Leaves: Altenew - Green Fields Mini Cubes; Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades & Evergreen

        Sentiment: Altenew - Plum Oval

Card Base: Simon Says Stamp Fog Cardstock

My next card from this class uses the Big World stamp and die set. I bought this set as I feel it is great for masculine themed cards:

What I Did:

I again started with a piece of white stamping cardstock. I chose the 'adventure awaits' sentiment and using my MISTI for positioning I stamped it multiple times diagonally to give me a background.

I stamped the globe using Nicole's techniques - So much easier than trying to figure out positioning!

I then die cut the globe. I die cut the stand 3 times in white scratch card and once in matt silver mirror cardstock. these were stacked and glued together to give dimension.

I adhered a piece of black card to my background using foam tape. Then added my globe stand and globe (making sure I got it the right way up!) I then stamped my sentiment on white stamping card and adhered this across my globe.

My design was then glued to a top opening black card base.

What I Used:

Stamps: Altenew - Big World

Stamping Card: Neenah Solar White

Ink: Altenew - Green fields Mini Cubes Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades & Black; Ocean Waves & Misty Morning (background).

Mirror card: Crafter's Companion Winter Wonderland

Black Cardstock: Creative Crafting World - Lynda Chapman

Thank you for stopping by and please let me know in the comments if you like what you see

Altenew Vintage Flowers

Good afternoon, Hot and humid here but nice with the air on inside!

Around 6 weeks ago I was sent an email asking if I was interested in taking part in the Altenew Educator Certification Program. Of course I was interested I LOVE Altenew stamps and their inks are amazing. I sent in my application and was accepted 😊. Then came my craft room make over so I put the classes on hold for a couple of weeks 

Now I'm fully moved in I have started the first class which is All About Layering with the lovely Nicole Picadura. Of course this focuses on lessons for Altenew's layered stamps and gives some basic stamping techniques and demonstrates ways to line up the stamps. 

My first card uses the Vintage Flowers stamp set, the flowers have either 3-4 layers to them and do look so realistic when stamped:

I used a few techniques making this card. lining up the flowers, masking off the central flower to stamp the others making it look even more dimensional and using accent flowers to fill in my design. The sentiment was from another Altenew set but fit perfectly in the space left for it.

What I used:

Floral Stamps: Altenew Vintage Flowers

Sentiment: Altenew Build a Flower Ranunculus

Stamping Card: Neenah Solar white 110lb

Pink inks: Altenew Red Cosmos Mini Cubes

Green Inks: Altenew Green Fields Mini Cubes

Yellow Inks: Altenew Summer Afternoon Mini Cubes

Card Base: Simon Says Stamp Fog Cardstock

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you like what you see and come back soon!

Best Wishes in Pretty Lilac

Good afternoon! the temperature here is currently 18 degrees Fahrenheit - soooo cold!  I'm tucked up inside with my fur babies and don't plan on venturing far today!

My design today was for a colleague of my husband, I have posted before about the card club he runs at work. I make a mixture of male and female cards for this and it challenges me because of the larger size needed. They have to be 8x8in cards so there is plenty of room for colleagues to write their birthday wishes to the recipient.
This card main feature is Crafter's Companion's Blossoming Lilacs Layering stamps. I love the effect you get from the layering, it gives such a realistic look to the flowers. I chose muted papers so that the stamped flowers really do pop.

Supply List:
8x8in card base - Craft UK
Blossoming Lilacs Stamps - Crafter's Companion
Stamping Card: Solar White - Neenah Classic Crest
Glacier Caves Inks - Altenew
Green Meadows Inks - Altenew
Rustic Cottage Chic Butterflies Dies - Sara's Signature Collection
Design Paper: Fresh Petal - Lili of The Valley
Blue Card Stock - Paper Studio


Thank you for stopping by and if you like what you see please let me know in the comments.