Altenew June 2023 Inspiration Challenge
Good day, fellow crafters! Today, I am thrilled to share with you my entry to the June 2023 Altenew Inspiration Challenge, and although the featured contest image is not my own, it does resemble the large displays of Petunias that bloom in my neighbor's backyard flower beds which inspired me to see what I could create with the prescribed color pallet. As a passionate crafter and card maker, I always look forward to participating in Altenew's monthly challenges, as they provide me with a wonderful opportunity to explore new color combinations, try out different techniques, and push my creative boundaries. In this blog post, I'll take you through my creative process for this challenge and how I designed and created my entry. I hope my entry to the June 2023 Altenew color challenge will inspire you to try out new colors, techniques, and designs in your own crafting projects. So, let's get started!
To begin this challenge, since it was for an Altenew challenge, I immediately reached for my collection of their designed crafting supplies. After browsing through my spring and floral stamp sets, I decided to go with the Altenew Midsummer Bouquet stamp set, the Altenew Storybook Frame embossing folder, Altenew Dye Ink re-inkers in the colors of Ultraviolet, Razzleberry, and Firefly as well as some Creative Expressions Pure Silver Gilding Polish. My cardstock was all from a no-name but premium set in the colors of purple and black. Finally, as I wanted to use my favorite technique of water-coloring, a piece of premium watercolor paper.
The first step in card construction was to create the background. To accomplish this I took the black cardstock, lightly misted the back to help prevent any tearing, and placed it into the Altenew Storybook Frame embossing folder. I then ran it through my embossing machine a couple of times to be sure the edges of the embossing were nice and crisp. I really liked the outcome of using this folder, the result was very much reminiscent of the ornate metalwork that is often found on old books. With that image firmly in my mind I decided to run with making that exact look by spreading on the Pure Silver Gilding Polish and couldn’t have been happier with the effect. Once the polish was dry I then cut it to its final dimension, resized the purple cardstock for a mat, and adhered both components to a pre-cut A2 white card base.
To create the foreground of the card I used the watercolor paper and the Altenew Midsummer Bouquet stamp with black ink to stamp the floral image. The thing that is unique about this stamp set is that it is an outline stamp set, meaning that only outlines are stamped which serve as a guide, delineating the shape and details of the image, while leaving the choice of colors and shading to the artist's interpretation. Once the image was stamped I took the re-inkers and added a few drops to my silicone work mat to which I then added a spritz of water to thin them out to use like watercolors. This allowed me to both watercolor which I love to do and to have the ability to make my own hues and shades easily. I did my best to carefully color in each of the flowers and leaves then set it aside to dry. Once completely dry I fussy cut around the image and then using some pop dots, adhered the florals onto the card base. This was to provide added dimension as well as to not take away from the cards wonderful embossing.
The last stage of construction was to include the sentiment. In order to create it I chose one of the sentiments from the Midsummer Bouquet stamp set and stamped it in silver to match the embossing. The sentiment base was created using the Altenew Featured Sentiment die set. I chose to use the smallest one I could manage because I did not want the sentiment to overpower the work that I had placed into creating the florals.
I do plan to send this card out to a loved one and you can see in the second image in the gallery the paper that I chose for the envelope. It coordinated beautifully with the blacks and silvers in the card.
I hope you found inspiration in this design and take up the challenge to join me in sending in your own entry to Altenew. If you do be sure to tag me so I can be sure to see it. If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them in the comment section below. Until next time remember, Crafting is Happiness!
