Shopping Our Stash #470: The Power of Pastels

Hello everyone! Today I am excited to share the Design Team cards I made for Shopping Our Stash challenge #470 as well as part of my final challenge assignment for Altenew Educator Certification Program's (AECP) Level 1 challenge.

As a part of the AECP Level 1 challenge, we were asked to reflect on and use what we learned from the Altenew Academy as we prepare a set of cards and a package for those cards. I chose to focus on the lessons and techniques from the following Altenew Academy Level 1 classes:

• Easy Die Cutting Techniques

• Easy Ink Blending Techniques

• Let it Shine

In addition, we were asked to create two sets of cards--one that is more feminine and masculine. For this SOS challenge, I decided to focus on the feminine cards.

Supplies used:

• Stamps: Altenew's Lovely Lotus stamp set, Altenew's Happy Pomegranates stamp set, Altenew's Needlework Motif stamp set, Altenew's Cotton Comfort stamp set
  

• Dies: Altenew's Lovely Lotus die set, stitched rectangular die, rectangular die, A2-sized stitched rectangular die, circle die in my stash

• Embossing Folder: Altenew's Mod Squares embossing folder

• Stencil: Altenew's Leaf Drops stencil

• Paper: White cardstock, watercolor paper, gold glitter cardstock, gold patterned paper, recycled magazine pages and packaging materials
  

• Ink: Wilted Violet Distress Oxide, VersaMark Frost Dazzle ink, Catherine Pooler's Pixie Dust ink

• Markers: Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers

• Clear Wink of Stella pen 
  

• Embossing Paste: Picket Fence Studio's Mint Hydrangea Paper Glaze,  Nuvo Pixie Wings Glacier Paste, The Crafter's Workshop's Matte Gel Medium

• Embossing Powder: Ranger's Holographic and Vintage Pearl embossing powder

• Cherry Bomb Nuvo Shimmer Powder
  

• Sprays:  Sparkly spray in my stash

• Washi tape: white glitter washi tape
  

• Sequin mix in my stash
  

• Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue   

• Altenew's Instant Dimension Foam Tape

Card #1

 

Usually, I share the cards in the order that I make them. But this card was the last one created for this card set. When starting the process of creating all of the cards, I had used the Leaf Drops stencil from Altenew to add a variety of embossing pastes onto some white cardstock. For this card, I used one of these backgrounds created by adding some Mint Hydrangea Paper Glaze from Picket Fence Studios onto the cardstock that was die cut with a circular die after the paper glaze had dried. I then ink blended around the edge of the circle with Wilted Violet Distress Oxide Distress Oxide. The circle was set aside for later.

The background panel was created by die cutting another piece of white cardstock with an A2-sized stitched rectangular die and then running that die cut piece of white cardstock through my die cutting machine again in my Altenew's Mod Squares embossing folder. But before running it through the embossing folder, I lightly sprayed the embossing folder with some sparkly spray in my stash to help make sure that the cardstock did not tear while being embossed and to create a little sparkle along the way.

 

 

The lotus flowers and greenery were created by stamping both the large and medium lotus flowers as well as the leaves from Altenew's Lovely Lotus stamp set with VersaMark Frost Dazzle ink and heat embossed them with Ranger's Vintage Pearl embossing powder onto a few different papers--some glossy magazine pages, some watercolor paper, and some recycled blue and green glossy packaging paper. The largest flower was then stamped again with the large solid flower stamp with Catherine Pooler's Pixie Dust ink twice. I then painted over the flower with my clear Wink of Stella pen for more sparkle. The two smaller flowers were colored in with two different purple Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and while the ink from the markers were still wet, I added Ranger's Holographic embossing powder over the petals. After melting the embossing powder on the flower, I would repeated the process a few more times. This process was repeated with the leaves--coloring the leaves with my Zig marker, heat embossing, and repeating at least twice. To me, this makes the leaves and the flower petals look a little like stained glass. 

The sentiment was created by stamping the congratulations sentiment from Altenew's Needlework Motif stamp set with Wilted Violet Distress Oxide and heat embossed it with more holographic embossing powder. The sentiment was then trimmed with my paper trimmer. The right edge was cut at an angle to give it a little more interest. The edges were ink blended with more of the Wilted Violet Distress Oxide.

 

 

 

To assemble the card, I glued the leaves to their respective flowers and let them dry. Meanwhile, I glued the circle die cut on the center left part of the Mod Squares background panel. After everything had dried, I glued the top flower and leaf to the circular die cut and attached the central (large) flower with Altenew's Instant Dimension Foam Tape. The bottom most flower and leaf were attached with two layers of Altenew's foam tape. Before the sentiment was glued onto the card panel, an additional layer of scrap cardstock was glued to the back to give the strip a little more dimension and strength. A tiny piece of scrap paper was then glued behind the right edge of the sentiment strip so that when the whole thing was glued onto the panel it so that there would two layers of cardstock between the sentiment strip and the embossed panel. The leftmost edge of the sentiment was tucked below the center flower and adhered to the circular die cut with more glue. Lavender and white sequins from my stash were glued close to the sentiment strip in a group of three and tucked behind some of the lotus flowers for more sparkle. Finally, the whole panel was glued to an A2-sized white card base.

 Card #2

The background of this card was created by running the Leaf Drops stencil paste-side down and a piece of cardstock through my die cutting machine. The leftover Picket Fence Studio's Mint Hydrangea Paper Glaze on the stencil from the first card's background was touching the cardstock. The pressure from the die cutting machine forced the remaining paste onto the card stock. After the paste had dried, the panel was die cut with a stitched rectangular die. Cherry Bomb Nuvo Shimmer Powder was mixed with water on a piece of plastic and then watercolor smooshed over this card panel and set aside to dry. Meanwhile, the matte layer of gold glitter cardstock was die cut with a slightly larger rectangular die.

 

 

The flowers and the smallest leaf from Altenew's Lovely Lotus stamp set were stamped on a variety of papers with more VersaMark Frost Dazzle ink: white cardstock for both of the purple flowers, pink patterned paper for the medium pink flower, and mint patterned paper for the leaf. These images were heat embossed with more Vintage Pearl embossing powder. The two smaller flowers and the leaf were colored with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers. The largest flower was stamped with the corresponding solid layering stamp from the stamp set with more Catherine Pooler's Pixie Dust ink. Clear Wink of Stella was brushed over the large flower for more sparkle. Each of the flowers and the leaf were die cut with their corresponding dies from the  Lovely Lotus die set from Altenew. Before moving onto the next part of the card, I die cut an additional piece of scrap cardstock with each of the dies and glued them behind their stamped counterparts to create a little dimension and some strength for each of the die cuts. 

 

 

The sentiment for this card came from  Altenew's Cotton Comfort stamp set and was stamped three times on a piece of pink patterned paper--twice with VersaMark Frost Dazzle ink and heat embossed with Vintage Pearl embossing powder, and once with Wilted Violet Distress Oxide Distress Oxide and heat embossed with Holographic embossing powder. The strip was trimmed in my paper trimmer. At first, I was planning on just ink blending around the edges of this sentiment strip, but realized that vintage pearl power was hard to see on the light pink patterned paper background, so more Wilted Violet Distress Oxide was ink blended around the majority of the sentiment strip to provide a little more contrast and make all three sentiments easier to see. 

To assemble the card, the sentiment strip was glued horizontally towards the bottom third of the embossed card panel. Some tape and glue was used behind the panel to keep the sentiment strip in place. More ink blending was applied to the right and left edges of the sentiment strip.  The flowers and leaf were glued to the card panel and sentiment strip. The embossed panel was then glued onto the gold glitter panel to create a gold frame around the panel and flowers. Lavender and white sequins were tucked around and underneath the floral images with one additional sequin glued to the bottom center of the card to cover a small blemish. Finally, the whole card panel was attached to an A2-sized white card base and set aside to dry.

 Card #3

This third card was heavily influenced by the Clean & Simple Boutique Cards class from Altenew Academy. The large lotus flower was stamped three times onto a piece of watercolor paper with the intention of making a diagonal pattern with the flowers. At first, I was going to create additional diagonal lines with the same stamp, but decided that it wouldn't fit, so stamped a diagonal line below and above the large floral image with the smaller floral image. After stamping each of the flowers with VersaMark Frost Dazzle ink and heat embossing them with more Vintage Pearl embossing powder, the flowers were colored in with purple and pink Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers--purples for the larger flowers and pink for the smaller ones. The panel was then die cut with the same smaller stitched rectangular die as card number two and then the edges of the panel were ink blended with Wilted Violet Distress Oxide. I then splattered some water over the card panel and used the water to heat emboss more of the  Vintage Pearl embossing powder on the card panel.

 

The gold glitter cardstock was again die cut with the larger rectangular die in my stash to create a gold frame around the stamped panel. The stamped panel was attached to the gold frame layer with Altenew's Instant Dimension Foam Tape.

Next came the sentiment. Again, the congratulations sentiment from Altenew's Needlework Motif stamp set was stamped with Wilted Violet Distress Oxide and heat embossed with more holographic embossing powder. After die cutting the sentiment with a thin sentiment strip die in my stash and trimming the right and left edges to better fit the card, the edges were again heat embossed with more Wilted Violet Distress Oxide. A strip of glossy magazine paper was then directly stamped with Catherine Pooler's Pixie Dust ink and then was glued behind the sentiment strip so that just a little of the purple magazine paper peeks out of the top. A piece of just a little bit larger than the sentiment strip was attached to the card base and the sentiment strip was attached with more Instant Dimension Foam Tape so that the washi tape could be seen on the bottom and both edges of the sentiment. 

 

To assemble the card, the gold glitter matte layer was glued to an A2-sized white card base. Lavender and white sequins from my stash were added to the card: three to the left of the sentiment, two above and to the right of the sentiment to create a triangle with one of the vertices being created by the sentiment itself, and two to cover up a couple of blemishes. 

 

 Card #4

 

This fourth card was actually the first one I made for this challenge. This card started with the stenciled background. It was created by using Altenew's Leaf Drops stencil to add a combination of Picket Fence Studio's Mint Hydrangea Paper Glaze,  Nuvo Pixie Wings Glacier Paste and The Crafter's Workshop's Matte Gel Medium onto a piece of white cardstock. Ranger's Vintage Pearl embossing powder was poured over a few spots on the cardstock and stuck to some of the embossing paste, especially in the left side of the card and lower right corner of the card. All of the embossing paste (and power) was then heat set with my heat tool. This was die cut with an A2-sized stitched rectangular die in my stash and then the edges of the panel were ink blended with Wilted Violet Distress Oxide Distress Oxide. The panel was then set aside.

Next came the flowers. As with the flowers created for the other cards, the flowers came from Altenew's Lovely Lotus stamp set. They were stamped with VersaMark Frost Dazzle ink and heat embossed with more of the Vintage Pearl embossing powder. The larger flower was made out of recycled magazine glossy paper and was colored by coloring in the leaves and center with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, adding Holographic embossing powder while the marker ink was still wet and then repeating the process about three more times. The smaller flower was colored by stamping the corresponding solid layering stamp from the Lovely Lotus stamp set with Catherine Pooler's Pixie Dust ink and then adding Clear Wink of Stella pen for additional sparkle. Both flowers were die cut with the corresponding dies from the Lovely Lotus die set. Additionally, each of the dies was used to die cut an additional layer out of scrap cardstock. The scrap layer flower was glued behind the colored image for dimension and strength. The small leaf stamp from the Lovely Lotus stamp set was stamped and heat embossed twice--once onto another scrap of glossy magazine paper and once onto a scrap of mint patterned paper again with the combination of VersaMark Frost Dazzle ink and  Vintage Pearl embossing powder. The two leaves were glued onto the back of the larger flower so that they peek out from the left side of the flower itself. 

The sentiment came from Altenew's Happy Pomegranates stamp set and was again stamped and heat embossed using the combination of VersaMark Frost Dazzle ink and  Vintage Pearl embossing powder on a scrap of watercolor paper. After cutting the sentiment into a small rectangle, I ink blended the whole thing to help the lighter embossing powder stand out.

To assemble the card, I glued a leftover circular frame made out of gold glitter cardstock to the stenciled background panel and then glued both flowers onto the panel as well. The sentiment was attached with some of  Altenew's Instant Dimension Foam Tape. The panel was then glued onto an A2-sized white card base. Finally, some lavender and white sequins were glued onto the card--tucked behind the flowers and the sentiment. The sequins around the sentiment were placed in a triangular pattern. Finally, one final sequin was glued on the bottom left corner to cover a blemish.

 

The box

Finally, the package that all of the cards could be sent in (the final part of the challenge) was created by gluing a piece of gold patterned paper around a recycled stationary box. A leftover piece of stenciled background panel (that was made in the same way as the other stenciled panels Picket Fence Studio's Mint Hydrangea Paper Glaze on white cardstock and had Ranger's Holographic and Vintage Pearl embossing powder added to the paste before heat embossing the paste. The panel was die cut with the same circular die as was used for some of the cards and glued onto the gold patterned paper on the center left of the box's top. Finally, a leftover leaf and flower from the cards were glued onto the panel. I splattered some Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers mixed with water was splattered over the die cut circle for an additional pop of color to finish up the box.

We hope that you are able to join us for our challenge over at Shopping Our Stash and thanks for reading!