Altenew Stamp/Die/Embossing Powder Release Blog Hop + Giveaway

I'm super excited to participate in Altenew's May 2017 Blog Hop! Altenew is releasing some fabulous new products, including stamps, dies and even embossing powders. You're in for a real treat with today's hop!

If you're already hopping along, you will have arrived here by way of Yoonsun Hur  If not, and you'd like to start at the beginning, head over to the Altenew blog to get started. When you're finished here, you'll head to Therese Calvird (I'll include the full hop list at the end).

PRIZES:
To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to THREE lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew blog by Thursday, June 1st at 11:59 pm EDT for a chance to win. The winners will be announced on the Altenew blog on Saturday, June 3rd.

ADDITIONAL PRIZE:
In addition, I will draw a winner to receive a $30 gift certificate. Just leave a comment on today's post. I will announce the winner at 9 am EDT on June 2.


Okay, ready for some projects? I had a lot of fun playing with the products I chose to work with! I have three cards and two card sets to share.

ENCHANTED IRIS: 



My first card features a beautiful new floral set called Enchanted Iris. Altenew has the best floral images!

I have two patches of Siberian Iris in my yard, and I look forward to those blooms every year! For this card, I stamped one of the iris images repeatedly and randomly, then embossed in white, and watercolored the flowers against a gray background.

I used Zig watercolor markers. I confess to having not been a huge fan of the Zigs, but they do have some magnificent, intense hues that are perfect here! I may be coming around!

Stamps: Enchanted Iris
Dies: stitched rectangle
Ink: Versamark, Versafine Onyx Black, light aqua
Paper: watercolor paper, white card stock, stone card stock
Other: Zig Clean Color Brush Markers, paintbrush, clear embossing powder, ink blending tool, dew drops, silver metallic embroidery floss, foam adhesive

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CRAFTY FRIENDS and PATTERN PLAY - DIAMOND: 

This next batch of cards were all created using Crafty Friends and Pattern Play - Diamond.

Crafty Friends is a ginormous set filled with wonderful sentiments perfect for crafty types! Pattern Play - Diamond has one extra-large background stamp as well as two smaller diamond trios, one solid and one outline.

I started this card by stamping and heat embossing the large diamond pattern onto watercolor paper. I knew those embossed diamonds would be perfect for creating little puddles of varying saturation.

I don't know if this is going to make sense, but I really appreciate the extra-large size of the background image in Pattern Play - Diamond. With a typical card panel-sized background, if you want your card to be horizontal, you have to rotate the stamp and the diamonds will run horizontally too. This stamp is large enough that your diamonds can be oriented in either direction, on both vertical and horizontal panels, too. It's a little thing, but appreciated!

I am totally dedicating this card to each and every person in the crafty community!

I did this background with Zigs, too. I just kept building up the color until I had the depth and saturation I was hoping for.

Stamps: Crafty Friends, Pattern Play - Diamond
Dies: stitched rectangles
Ink: Versamark
Paper: watercolor paper; stone and charcoal card stock
Other: white embossing powder, Zig Clean Color Real Brush watercolor markers, water brush, foam adhesive, teal sequins

I wanted to do another, lighter blue-green background, this time with the beautiful Antique Silver Embossing Powder. Isn't that silver gorgeous?!

See how the diamonds are still vertical on the horizontal card? That's thanks to the extra-large background image.

Stamps: Crafty Friends, Pattern Play Diamond
Dies: stitched rectangles
Ink: Versamark, teal
Paper: watercolor paper, white card stock, vellum
Other: Altenew Antique Silver Embossing Powder  white embossing powder, Zig Clean Color Real Brush watercolor markers, water brush, ink blending tool, foam adhesive

The sentiments in Crafty Friends just keep going and going. I wanted to create a design that I could relatively quickly mass-produce. In addition to the large background in Pattern Play - Diamond, there are also two smaller images of three diamonds, one solid and one outline. These are perfect for building fun patterns, including argyle.

Here I've overlapped the solid triangles and then stamped the outline in the spaces in between.

Once I had my images positioned in my MISTI and the measurements figured out, it was a breeze to whip up a whole set. I typically lose interest quickly when trying to mass-produce, so to keep it interesting, each card is slightly different.

Stamps: Crafty Friends, Pattern Play - Diamond
Dies: stitched rectangle
Ink: Versamark; aqua, green, yellow and navy ink
Paper: white and navy card stock
Other: Antique Silver Embossing Powder, sequins, silver thread

I made a second set, this time with a warmer, brighter color combo.

Between the two sets, I have eight cards, each with a different Crafty Friends sentiment.

Stamps: Crafty Friends, Pattern Play - Diamond
Dies: stitched rectangle
Ink: Versamark; fuschia, orange, gold, and dark gray inks
Paper: white and charcoal card stock
Other: Antique Silver Embossing Powder, sequins, silver thread

For more May release inspiration, be sure to stop by each stop on the hop:

Altenew

Jennifer McGuire

Virginia Lu

Lilith Eeckels

Nina-Marie Trapani

Svitlana Shayevich

Laura Bassen

Raquel Bowman

Joni Andaya

May Sukyong Park

Lydia Evans

TaeEun Yoo

Kavitha

Marika Rahtu

Lisa Spangler

Nicole Picadura

Yoonsun Hur

Amy Sheffer (you are here)

Therese Calvird

Debby Hughes

Carissa Wiley

Flora Monika Farkas

Erum Tasneem

Keeway Tsao

Eunyoung Lee

Sveta Fotinia

Agnieszka Malyszek

Thanks for stopping by!

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