Hi there
How's your week been? We have had lots of restrictions lifted so we have been out a couple of times, which has been lovely. It's been SO good to meet up with friends and family again. We live in a stunning part of Scotland, so it's felt like being on holiday exploring our gorgeous area again.
Onto my two cards for today.
I just completed my 5th Altenew online masterclass as part of the Altenew Certified Educator Program, which means I'm now halfway through Level 1.
I decided to do the Easy Ink Blending Techniques Masterclass by Amy Lee. It's another really good class. I've not been disappointed with any of them, they're so good. Did you know that anyone can join them? You don't have to do the certification programme. Just choose an area you want to learn about and purchase that programme.
My first card showcases the faux watercolour technique. Instead of using actual watercolours, you use pigment die ink pads and Distress Inks. I have been wanting to learn how to do this properly for years. It's made me really excited to try out all of the watercolour classes now. Amy explains the technique so well. I'm over the moon with how it turned out, and it's such an easy card to create too.
Card 1 - Faux Watercolouring
Using the Altenew Bamboo Rose stamp set, I stamped lots of different roses in Versamark ink on watercolour cardstock and then heat embossed them. I'd say I embossed them in white, but the truth is my 'white' is SO old that it's actually cream now!! I ordered a new WOW! white embossing powder to replace it for next time.
Following how Amy taught the technique, I stamped and embossed each flower individually so that I could lay one flower over another. Although in the video Amy shares that the best watercolour card for this is smooth, I only have a cold-pressed watercolour cardstock which has a slight texture to it. I wasn't sure if the technique would work because of this. I really like the texture of cold-pressed watercolour card though so I thought I would have a play and it worked perfectly.
I then used Altenew mini ink cubes and blended the various colours over the top of the white embossed roses. (Full list of colours in the links at the bottom of this post)
You could just leave the card there as it looks so pretty with the soft blended inks. However, I wanted to do the faux watercolour technique so I added some water to help the inks start flowing. Once you've got the first layer down, you heat set it with a heat tool.
For the second layer of colour, you simply go back in with your brush, pick up the colours again (or darker colours) to intensify each of the tones, and heat set again. Finally, for the third layer, Amy shared that you can go in again and add deeper shades of colour in die inks, or distress inks, heat setting once you're happy with it. I did a combination of both types of inks. You do need to be careful not to work too much over each of the other colours as they can become muddy. I had this happen in one area but managed to fix it.
Using a stitched rectangle die set I die cut the watercoloured panel, and then attached it to another die cut rectangle in aqua. I stamped the sentiment from the Altenew Sweet Friend stamp set, using Peacock Feathers Distress Ink.
Next, I die cut the sentiment in a purple cardstock I had in my stash using the Altenew Script Words 2 die set. I die cut the word twice more in white cardstock and stuck it behind the purple to give it some dimension. I offset the white behind so that it would create a slight shadow. I then added a bit of shimmer with some mauve sequins. I really need to get some sequins that are different sizes, most of mine are the same size. I'd love to know what sequins you use, do share in the comments below.
Card 2 - Emboss Resist
For my next card, I wanted to play with the Emboss Resist technique. Amy had created a lovely scene with emboss resist and splatters. I'd watched a few videos in the past about trapping colour underneath clear embossing powder and thought I would play.
I started out by ink blending my background using three main colours, yellow, pink and purple. It doesn't look that great here, does it?!
I wasn't bothered about it being perfect blending because I knew you wouldn't see that once it was completed. Using my heat gun I dried the panel quickly before choosing some stamps. I did actually choose Altenew Bamboo Rose stamps initially, but that piece wasn't as good because I realised it was better to use solid stamps as opposed to outline stamps, so I ended up using the Altenew Bride to Be set instead.
Using my Versamark ink I stamped my solid images onto my ink coloured piece and then added clear embossing powder to create shiny images. Once that was done, I blended black over the whole panel with some black Versafine ink. I tried Black Soot Distress Ink first but it wasn't as dark as I'd have liked it so I used the Versafine instead. Interestingly, the final result is actually a lovely chocolate brown.
I dried that layer off before getting out my Komorebi metallic watercolours, which I splattered over the whole base. I then dry embossed the geometric panel of chocolate shimmery cardstock using the Altenew Diamond Stars 3D embossing folder. I LOVE that folder! To create some interest, I cut the panel at an angle using the star pattern as a guide.
I attached this to the embossed background I had created and then attached both panels to a 5" x 7" card base. I actually prefer 6" x 4" card bases but for some reason, people always want to order the larger size so I thought I'd make this size to add to my stash.
I die cut a hot pink banner and stamped the sentiment in Lava Rock from the Wallpaper Art stamp set (You'll be seeing this soon - it's stunning florals!) Lava Rock is my go-to black because black is so last year dahlinks haha.
Picking out some colours from the trapped coloured embossing, I stamped the layered flowers from the Bride to Be set. I die cut a circle to attach them to, you can just about see it peeking out from under the flowers, and then adhered the panel of flowers onto the banner. I did some flat and added some pop-dots under some of them for some extra dimension.
The card still needed a bit of something so I hand cut a strip of hot pink glitter to separate the two sections and the card was complete.
I hope you like my cards and that you'll have a play with some different techniques.
Thanks for popping by! Until next time.
Supplies Used:
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