Altenew June 2018 Stamp/Die Release Blog Hop + Giveaway

Hi friends!  I'm happy to be hopping with Altenew today as they celebrate their June release.  This release is jam-packed full of new goodies and I had a lot of fun working with the products.

My first card features the new Ditsy Print set.  I really love the sweet floral print you can create with this, and it's a 4x6 set so very affordable too!  I am not the most precise stamper in the world, so this one was a little intimidating for me, but it turned out to be easier than it looked at first.  

Once I got the hang of things, I was able to reproduce the floral cluster pretty easily.  Note, I did NOT use the outline, although the set does come with that, and I'm likely to use that at some point, but probably for coloring purposes rather than stamping everything together.  I think I would have had a harder time lining things up perfectly within the lines, but using the solids and solids together is pretty forgiving.

I knew that I was going to keep things pretty simple, but didn't want the card to be too stark, so I chose a very subtle grid paper to stamp on which softens things up just a bit.  The sentiment is from one of my old standbys, the Beautiful Day stamp set.  In terms of ink colors, I used Sea Glass, Dusk, Desert Night, Just Green and Hunter Green.

Next up, I worked with the new Moroccan Mosaic background set.  I love no-line coloring backgrounds because I think you get such a different look, and this background is perfect because the spaces are relatively small and there are so many different ways you could color it.

I chose four shades of Copics in the BG family (BG000, BG02, BG05, BG07), and went to work.  I love the kind of kaleidescope effect you get here.  This is a bit time consuming, but easy enough to do while you're catching up on the DVR.

I wanted to keep things pretty simple and let the background be the star, so I just matted and popped the sentiment (also from this set) up over top.

Now for another floral card featuring the new The Sweetest Peas set.  

I really love how showy these blooms are, I think they have a really modern, Art Nouveau fell to them and wanted to showcase that.

The flowers were colored with Copics, two were colored slightly darker than the other, and then die cut.  Then I created a really simple, but dynamic background.  I used two shades of gray cardstock, cutting the bottom darker shade at an angle to create a bit of drama.

The flowers were arranged over top, and I cut the end of the sentiment strip (the sentiment is also from the set) at an angle to match the angle of the gray cardstock.

A few sequins finished it off.

Finally, a card featuring the new Land of the Free stamp set.

Everyone needs at least one good patriotic set in their arsenal and this one hits all the right notes for me.  I love eagle images and that the sentiments will work for Fourth of July, Veteran's Day, Memorial Day, etc.

I started by watercoloring the background.  Using different shades of blue, I kind of roughed in some mountains at the top and ended with just simple strokes across the panel at the bottom.  Once that was dry (although not bone dry), I went back with a wet but not sopping brush with just clean water and went back and forth across the panel lightly.  This softens the transitions between the layers and gives it a kind of faraway, ethereal look.

Once dry, the image and sentiment were stamped and the eagle was colored with Prismacolour pencils.

That's all for me today.  This is a long hop and there is so much to see!  The hop starts at the Altenew Card Blog, and your next stop is Reiko Tsuchida, but I have the full hop list below if you need ir.

Also, there are prizes!  Altenew is giving away six $50 gift certificates!  To be entered, leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or Altenew Scrapbook Blog.  I also have a $30 gift certificate to share!  To be entered, leave a comment here, and I'll announce a winner June 20th.  Good luck and happy hopping!

Altenew Card Blog

May Sukyong Park

Laurie Willison

Erum Tasneem

Anna Komenda

Laura Bassen

Karin Åkesdotter

Flora Monika Farkas

Kristina Werner

Rubeena Ianigro

Svitlana Shayevich

TaeEun Yoo

Nicole Picadura

Mona Tóth

Vicky Papaioannou

Altenew Scrapbook Blog

Lydia Evans

Chari Moss

Kymona Tracey

Joni Andaya

Therese Calvird

Raquel Bowman

Yoonsun Hur

Laura Jane

Lilith Eeckels

Miriam Prantner

Reiko Tsuchida

Lydia Fiedler

Zinia Redo

Simon Says Stamp Blog

Debby Hughes

Enza Gudor

Agnieszka Malyszek

Janette Kausen

Virginia Lu

Sandra Dietrich

Kay Miller