Altenew Academy | Sunshine in my pocket

Tag Archives | Altenew Academy

Emboss a Layer

By KariV on April 25, 2020 in Paper Crafting

Hello! Today I’m excited to share a new technique (to me) with layering stamps. I stamped this beautiful flower and then heat embossed ONE of the layers to create a fabulous result!

First I stamped out the colors in fun sherbet colors (I’ve got summer on my mind!) and then I heat embossed a layer with this beautiful gold/tan embossing powder.

It adds such a fun layer of light glittery look to the flowers. I also black heat embossed the little stamens for a fun look.

To put this card together, I used some washi tape for the background and cut out the large hope sentiment with a yellow glitter paper and backed it with black cardstock.

Aren’t these flowers so beautiful?! I was inspired by the course “Impressive Heat Embossing” at Altenew…and I had one more technique I wanted to try. Svetlana Marchenko suggested trying clear heat embossing on a dark or colored background. So this next card does just that.

I used the same florals and washi tape on this bright green Spring card…with clear embossing on the background. It is difficult to see in photos, but in real life it adds a fun element to the card.

For the hello sentiment, I heat embossed it with a dark grey embossing powder to finish it all off.

What a great class! I recommend it to anyone wanting some new, fresh heat embossing ideas for your cards. Thanks for stopping by!

I’m often asked what supplies I use to make my cards and projects, so I’ve put together a list using affiliate links when possible. If you make a purchase with these links I may receive a small commission. These help me to keep up with blog costs and continue bringing you fun projects. Thank you so much for your support!

Comments { 1 }

Watercolor Brush Pens

By KariV on April 21, 2020 in Paper Crafting

Hello! Today I have some very BRIGHT cards for you, created using Watercolor Brush Markers from Altenew. I was quite surprised and amazed at the amount of pigment in these brush markers, and you will see that you can create some vivid, beautiful images with them!

This is a part of my AECP certification training, and I was inspired by the class called “Creative watercolor Media” taught by Jennifer Rzasa, Debbie Hughes, and Laura Bassen. I used quite of few of the techniques from this series: like watercoloring from a palette, watercoloring with sprays, and others.

Take a look at these cards! Those colors are amazing!

I create a video to share the three techniques I used, watch it below or on YouTube in HD:

For the first card, I used the wet-on-wet technique with watercolor paper. I heat embossed the image in gold, then used a waterbrush to add some water to a few of the petals. Then I added the color in. I let the water do most of the work and it turned into a brilliant flower! Wow!

For the background, I used a Metallic Spray to add color and splashes of interest.

On the second card, I used the watercolor pens direct to the watercolor paper and got amazing color. I put on some color from each of the markers, then blended with a brush and water to get a smooth look. So bright!

Glitz Glitter gel over the top to tone down the color

I used only ONE color on that big flower this time…so much depth. These pigments are just so good.

For the last card, I mixed colors together to get even more colors for my rainbow flowers.

I stamped the large flower on both corners of this card, and heat embossed in clear. Then I mixed some colors to get a nice rainbow spectrum. I finished off this card with some rainbow die cuts and a sentiment stamped in Lagoon ink to match the watercolor pens.

I really hope you enjoyed these projects, I challenge you to try out some watercolor brush markers and give these techniques a try!

Comments { 1 }

Unusual Color Combinations

By KariV on March 7, 2020 in Paper Crafting

Hello! Today I have an unusual color combination to share. I was inspired by the Altenew class “With a Twist” taught by Therese Calvird. She challenged us to try a color combination that we don’t usually use.

So today I have a card using Navy, Stone, Peony, and Lime! This is a color combo I have NEVER used before. Oh, and I threw in some Rose Gold foil just for fun. It is so difficult to photograph foil, but the sentiments is made of Rose Gold.

For the background of this card, I pieced in the four colors of cardstock into the Layered Snowflake Stars Cover die B; then I removed the frame so it revealed the white cardstock underneath.

I put the colors in completely randomly. I think I like navy, peony, stone and lime together!

For the flowers, I used 2 darker navy Distress Oxides for the layers and Black ink as the outline layer. Then I used a lime ink for the center of the flowers.

I die cut the thanks from rose gold foil and adhered it onto navy paper. I popped up the sentiment strip and flowers with foam tape. I really love how these colors worked together. Grateful for AECP and this class for really pushing me to try some new things!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Comments { 1 }

Beautiful Anemone

By KariV on February 21, 2020 in Paper Crafting

Hello, friends! Today I’m sharing a project that I have wanted to try for a while and I finally did! This card was inspired by the “Beautiful Details” class at Altenew Academy. This class is taught by Marika Rahtu and she is an inspiration! In one of the lessons, she stamped with Zigs on watercolor paper and added details with the same Zigs.

I was so in love that I wanted to try it myself. I love the way it turned out! Now, I know I need more practice, but I did take my time and spent quite a bit of effort….what do you think?

I only used four colors of Zigs for this project: Gray Tint, Gray Brown, Light Blue, and Shadow Mauve. I stamped the flower using the Shadow Mauve (I colored directly onto the stamp, then stamped it down using the Misti). Then I added details with the same color and then the light blue color.

For the center and the leaves, I used the Gray Tint and the Gray Brown. This took me some time as I kept adding layers and blending them out with my water brush.

I used the Wavy Grid stencil to add a subtle design to the background of the card. Then I popped up the flower with two layers of 3M foam tape, and the leaves with one layer of foam tape.

The last step was adding the congrats die cut sentiment to this card. I think the spacing on this die is perfect for this card.

I hope you enjoyed this project today! Thanks for stopping by.

Comments { 1 }

You Are Loved

By KariV on February 13, 2020 in Holidays, Paper Crafting, Valentines

Hello! I have some cards to share in different colors today. I recently took the Altenew Course called “In The Mood For Color” and it was so interesting. She talked about the different feelings we get from color and how it changes the whole feeling of a card.

So today, I made two of the same card in different colors. First, I chose red/pink for Valentines Day! This color evokes love, passion and energy.

The Second color I chose was blue/green. Blue evokes tranquility and green is soothing & natural feeling. These are some of my favorites and I couldn’t resist pairing them together.

To start, I inked up the backgrounds with Distress Oxides and other hybrid inks. Then I stamped on the Leaves with a similar color. I added the dots with glitter embossing powder for more of a subtle sparkle for these cards.