create with cheiron

altenew: paint a flower iris

 

Hi there crafty friends. Today I have another card project that I completed as part of the Altenew Educator Certification Program. This card was created based on techniques from the Impressive Heat Embossing class. I based my card on the first lesson which is embossing for coloring. I love heat embossing when coloring because it is an easy way to help me stay in the lines, especially when watercoloring. I combined the new to me Paint A Flower: Iris stamp set with the Altenew Artists 24 Color Pan Watercolor set. 

To start I embossed the Iris in Gold Embossing Powder and colored in the Irises in shades of reds and oranges by wetting each area I wanted to color and dropping the color in to that section. I let each area dry and was careful to color areas that were dry on either side for each section. I colored in the petals first and once they were dry, I completed the leaves. When the Iris coloring was completed, I added a wash of the Crystal Water blue paint all around the Iris, letting the color fade out at the top. The embossing really helps to keep the wash from getting on to the flowers. Once the panel was dry, I stamped the sentiment in Archival Ink. 

To finish the card, I masked off the flower and the sentiment and added Altenew Antique Gold Metallic Spray, Jet Black Spray, and Pure White Spray by dipping a clean paintbrush into each spray and splattering it on the card. 

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altenew: statement flowers

Hi crafty friends! After a very long break, I am continuing on with my Altenew Educator Certification Program. I am glad I took some time away and continued on when I had time to really focus on the material. For this card, I took ideas and inspiration from the Color Your Day class by Therese Calvird. I took my inspiration from Lesson 2 in this class and used analogous colors on the color wheel (groups of 3 colors that are next to each other on the color wheel) including red, orange, and red-orange (and a bit of yellow) for a soft and warm palette. I also took inspiration from Lesson 5 and used a new medium (DIstress Reinkers) that I have not colored or stamped with before. For me, this took a bit of time and patience to paint, but in the end I was really pleased with the result. I used the gorgeous Statement Flowers Stamp as the focal image of my card. 

To color my card, I used Tim Holtz Distress Reinkers in Worn Lipstick, Picked Raspberry, Dried Marigold and a bit of Squeezed Lemonade for the flowers. For the petals, I used Crushed Olive and Twisted Citron. For these you only need the tiniest drop of reinker mixed with water as they are super concentrated. Keep in mind that you can also mix colors together to get different, in between colors. 

To begin, I stamped the Statement Flowers stamp in Antique Linen Distress Ink onto watercolor paper. Then I started painting the petals by adding a wash of water over each petal and filling it in with the colors drying between each layer and building up the dark areas. Once the painting was dry, I cut it out with the Statement Flowers die. To finish the card, I adhered it to a panel of striped paper, then solid paper in the coordinating color. I created a thin sentiment strip using the Sentiment Strips stamp set and adhered a few sequins to complete it. 

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altenew: wallpaper art

Finally getting back to finishing my Altenew Educator Program certification. Diving right back into the courses and today I have created a card inspired by the Creative Watercolor Media class. I used a technique from Debby Hughes where she painted her florals with shimmer sprays. I have several of these sprays, so I thought I would create a similar card. To create this card, I stamped and embossed the Wallpaper Art flowers and leaves and painted them with a watercolor paint brush with shimmer sprays in Puffy Heart, Coral Berry, Forest Glade, Frayed Leaf and a bit of Warm Sunshine to brighten up the leaves and flower centers. 

Once all of my leaves and flowers had dried, I die cut them and played around with the arrangement, so I knew where to put them on my card. I used a few sprays of Antique Gold shimmer spray on some black watercolor paper and stamped and embossed the sentiment from the Sincere Greetings set in gold to tie it all together. 

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class recap: altenew marvelous may flowers class at the ink pad

Hi there crafty friends! As you might know, I teach a monthly class at The Ink Pad in NYC. This month I taught a class using Altenew products as part of my Altenew Educator Certification Program training. One part of the certification requirement is to teach a class that is observed by Altenew via Google Hangout. I was lucky enough to have my class observed by Virginia and Nicole from Altenew this past Friday night.


This store is tiny (only 300 sq ft) so a lot of prep work is done by me before the class to make sure everyone has an enjoyable creative experience in a small space. To teach the class, all the fixtures in the shop have to be moved once it is closed and tables have to be set up. The classes in the shop are small and there is only room for 10 students in class. I travel on the subway after work with all the supplies, so many of the pieces are stamped and die cut in advance. Each student gets a class kit with all of the pieces and card bases they will need to create their cards and I bring small bins for all the supplies needed to create each card, so they don't have to carry a lot with them besides the very basics. The way the tables are set up, we usually split the room into 2 groups and each table takes turns making the cards. We began the class with a fun prize raffle so very generously donated by Altenew...Congrats Laurie! I hope you enjoy your new goodies! 


This month's class was Marvelous May Flowers and we used all different types of Altenew flower stamps and dies, stencils and tons of different coloring mediums to create the cards we made in class. We colored with Altenew markers, Shimmer Sprays, Watercolor Brush Markers (these were a class favorite!) and regular watercolors. The ladies spent the evening with lots of different methods of coloring in the class...and everyone agreed it was a super relaxing way to destress on a Friday night. 






I think everyone had a great time! Some of these ladies have been taking my classes for years (this is my 10th year teaching at the shop!) and they just know what to do. We had a couple of students that were new (and one brand new stamper) and everyone helped each other out.  


Thanks Su-Queen for being my card model and showing off your fabulous class creations! 

And thank you Linda and Lissette for taking four classes in a row with me this year!!! I love to see you in class and appreciate your support so much :) 


For more information on my classes you can check out the classes & events tab on my blog or to get on my mailing list to be the first to know about future events and classes, be sure to sign up for my newsletter! 

altenew: coffee love see through shaker

Hi crafty friends. I am continuing on my journey of becoming an Altenew Educator and have been working through all the required courses and having tons of fun. For today's assignment, the card I have created was inspired by the Acetate with a Twist lesson in the With a Twist class by Therese Calvird For this lesson, she taught a super cute see through shaker card. Here is my take on the lesson using the Coffee Love stamp set. The shaker lets you see right through the card to the coffee pot underneath...I splattered some ink onto my card to give it a bit of interest. 

In all of my years of card making, I don't think I have ever made a see-through shaker card...It was pretty easy and I think the look is super cute! For the inside of the card, I kept it simple and added a sentiment from the Coffee Love set on the inside. 



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altenew: magical marker techniques

Another card for the Altenew Educator Program today. This time it's a card based on a lesson from the Magical Marker Techniques class. The background on this card was made by coloring through the stencil with markers. It was super easy to create too!

I cut a panel from Neenah solar white cardstock and then placed the Skylight Stencil on top of it using the Wendy Vecchi Make Art Stay-tion. This new product is a magnetic board with some really awesome magnets to hold your stencils in place while you are using them. I was able to color through the stencil and the magnets stayed in place the entire time. Another great feature of the station is that you can turn it around to color another portion and it does not move! 


I finished off the card with the Thanks die and let the background really shine on its own.


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altenew: polychromatic

Continuing on my Altenew Educator journey today with a card inspired by the Polychromatic class taught by Nina-Marie Trapiani. I love her card making style and her lessons were wonderful. I especially loved her lesson on creating a card that was mostly white with pops of bold color...such a fun and happy look!


For this card, I used the All the Hearts stamp set and stamped them in a repeating pattern in brightly colored inks (Coral Berry, Sapphire,Volcano Lake and Rubellite) I cut the Simply Friend die from the panel and stacked two more cut out dies behind it before adhering it back to the panel. To finish the card, I added a strip od contrasting cardstock and stamped a sentiment from the All the Hearts set. 

This is a technique that I will be trying again real soon in other color combinations..so fun and perfect for so many occasions!


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altenew: moroccan mosaic

Another card made inspired by the lessons in the Altenew Educator Certification Program. This time, the inspiration comes from the class In the Mood for Color course by Stephanie Klauck and I've gone with a warm orange and pink color palette desired to evoke feelings of courage (orange) and caring (pink). I love this Morrocan Mosaic set and for this card, I stamped and embossed it with Antique Gold embossing powder making it the perfect background to watercolor in. I love the warm, sunshiny tones that this card conveys and hope it brings some good feelings to the recipient. The sentiment was embossed in white onto gold foil cardstock.





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altenew: watercolor dots

Hi crafty friends. I have been signed up as an Altenew Educator Certification Program participant for a while now, and have just gotten around to taking some of the classes I need to take to finish the next level of certification...I love Altenew products and have been using them in my classes for a few years, but I thought it was time to make it official! The latest class I have completed is the Beyond Basic Backgrounds with Lydia Evans. This class had so many fun ways to create backgrounds with all different types of techniques.

One of the lessons in this class created a background with 'water bleaching', which is a technique that I love the look of, but have not played around with it in a quite a while and this reminded me to revisit it. It's such an easy way to change up supplies we may already have on hand. To create this fun background, I inked up a watercolor panel with some of my favorite colors of Distress Ink using a foam blending tool, then I misted the stamp with water and stamped the panel. I thought the effect would look even more pronounced with a big bold dot stamp like the Watercolor Dots stamp set. 

To finish off the card, I added a some big bold flowers and a sentiment from the Inked Rose set...

Here's a close up of that fun background. I have a lot more classes to complete, and really forgot how fun it was to explore techniques...so I will be sharing some makes from the next few classes soon.