Hello my dear crafters and all of you who are just browsing.
Welcome to the very last blog for Altenew Monthly Challenge of the year of 2022.
This has been a fun and creative year. I pushed myself a bit more and it paid off, i do have to admit that . I learned a lot of good stuff and techniques and I hope to see even more excitement in the new year.
For this final challenge almost anything goes. Altenew’s challenge for the month of December is A Year In Review. You can pick and chose any inspiration image from the past 11 months. Since I only entered a several challenges, I still have a lot to chose from. And I chose two. I simply could not resist, and I hope you like my take on the inspirations I chose.
This image is from the month of July and it was hosted by Aga (Agnieszka Malyszek). You can interpret this image in a lot of different ways. There are so many different ideas and techniques that you can use and try to create something so fabulous.
I was naturally drawn to this image the second I saw it! For all of yo who know me know that I am a huge fan of the white color. Since we are working with white canvases, it can be challenging to achieve that white on the paper, but that is why is so fun. This challenge was hosted by Therese Calvird, one of my favorite Altenew designers, and this was for the month of March,.
Since we are in neither of those months, I decided to follow the festive theme of Christmas and push the boundaries even more.
Card One:
This is the beautiful card that Aga created. I love the color combination and how she added shades to her image.
I will only be focusing on the color theme, and when I think about it a bit more, I always find colors to be the main focus of my design.
Aga used Forest Glades, Desert Night and Maple Yellow in her design and this is what I created:
Here are one of my most used and most favorite things to use:
- Altenew Starry Night Stamp Set (unfortunately, this stamp set is retired)
- Altenew Antique Gold Embossing Powder
- Altenew Metallic Water Colors
- Altenew Dye Inks – Forest Glades
Other Supplies used:
- Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110 lbs Cardstock for my card base
- Strathmore Watercolor Paper for my panel
- MISTI Stamp Positioner
- VersaFine Clear Embossing Ink
Whenever there are water coloring and embossing involved, always make sure to emboss your image first. Embossing is a very resilient technique. Once it’s set on the paper, it will never come off and it also resists inks and watercolors. Make sure to always coat your paper with anti static powder prior to embossing. This way you will get crisp results all the time.
I then left my panel aside to dry and in the meantime I colored a mat for my panel. I used Forest Glades to color the edges and once my panel was dry, I used the same color ink to stamp a sentiment. I then assembled everything, and my card was done!
Card Two:
This is the card that wonderful Terese made for the month of March 2022. Wow, that sounds so far away now…
This card just has it all, enough pop of color, simplicity yet very detailed and very dimensional.
As you can see, these two cards are very similar in terms of colors. They both use greens, blues and yellows and choosing these two cards was not intentional.
For my second card, since the colors were from the same family, I decided to go with the same layout: two flowers, little bit of green, a little pop of yellow and a bold, black sentiment.
The supplies I used:
- Altenew Poinsettia & Berries Stamp Set
- Altenew Dye Inks: Limestone, Silver Stone, Industrial Diamond
- Altenew Masking Paper
I first stamped an image on Altenew Masking Paper and fussy cut the image.
Then, I simply layered images from the poinsettia stamp set using Limestone, Silver Stone and Industrial Diamond Altenew Dye Inks. I used masking paper to stamp two flowers to match the layout of the original, inspiration image.
I used Moss dye ink for the leaves.
Since this ink is highly pigmented, My first stamp was on a piece of scrap paper and then I stamped on my panel.
To add details and fill in the gaps I used Altenew Woodless Coloring Pencils; I also used a silver metallic pen from the Must-have Gel Pen Set.
To color in the background, or better said half of my background, I used one of the light blue alcohol marker from Altenew, I added a sentiment with Altenew Permanent Black Ink and attached everything to the card base.
The only thing left to do was to add some gold half domes in the center of my flowers instead of using the yellow color. And my card was done!
And that wraps up the year of Altenew Monthly Challenges for the 2022.
Next year we have more challenges in front of us, and when it comes to Altenew, there will be 12 more, brand new ideas and brand new creations and I cannot wait to share them all with you.
Merry Christmas everyone and see you soon with a new post.
Cheers!
