Daily Inspiration

Designer Spot: Laura Bassen

By in Daily Inspiration, Guest Designer, Video Tutorials Tags: ,

Hi there! Laura Bassen here and I am so honored to be guest blogging for Altenew today. Jen and Tasnim are two of my favorite designers and I think that their new designs are truly inspirational. I have a couple of projects to share using some of the new releases. My first card features the new Sohcahtoa stamp set.Sohcahtoa card 1I used the large triangle image to create this graphic pattern and then colored them in using distress ink markers.
Sohcahtoa card 2Next up is a card featuring Hennah Elements.
Hennah elements card 1
I created this cluster of blooms with a bit of masking and Copic coloring. I also used a white gel pen to add a bit of detail to the images.
Hennah elements card 2
Here’s a video to show you how I created these cards….enjoy:)

Thank you so much for joining me today and many thanks to Jen and Tasnim for having me!!

Focus: Hennah Elements

By in Daily Inspiration, Stamp Focus Tags:

Hello and welcome back to another stamp set focus.

Today we are highlighting the set Hennah Elements.

Hennah elements stamp set

Design Inspiration: South Asian Hennah designs

henna 1

Image Source

henna 2

Image Source

henna 3

Image Source

Creative Ideas:

hennah elements card with copic 1

hennah elements card with copic 2

Layering the elements from this set is a lot of fun and it will give you beautiful dimensional results. In this card I stamped the flowers and the leaf on white card stock which I had previously speckled with Gold color shine. I colored the flowers partially with Copic markers, then trimmed them and arranged them on a cream card stock using layers of foam tape.

hennah elements card on vellum 1

hennah elements card on vellum 2

The delicate details of these flowers can be well appreciated when you white emboss them on vellum. Here I white embossed the images on pink vellum, trimmed and layered them using clear glue. The sentiment was also embossed in white but on a piece of baby pink card stock.

hennah elements card with Distress ink 1

hennah elements card with Distress ink 2

You can color these flowers using any medium of your choice; markers, inks, pencils, etc. Here I water colored them by first stamping on a piece of water color paper using Distress inks. Given Distress inks’ amazing quality, I was able to then draw the ink from the base of the petals using a wet brush. To finish the card, I mounted the panel on a piece of shimmery gold card stock, and embossed the sentiment in gold.

designing with hennah elements 1

designing with hennah elements 2

The elements in this set are great for compositions. With simple stamping, as in this card, you can make you own designs!

and finally we have this gorgeous card by Jen:

designing with hennah elements 3

designing with hennah elements 4

The contrast between those richly colored flowers and the subtle border background really brings this card to life! Notice that the smaller flower in the set perfectly matches the inner layer of the large flower which makes it easy to trim and layer.

I hope that this set will help you explore your creativity, for there are so many possibilities. I can not wait to see what you make with it!

Focus: Faux Veneer

By in Daily Inspiration, Stamp Focus Tags:

Good morning!

Today, we are featuring our Faux Veneer set.

Faux veneer stamp set

 

Design Inspiration:  Wood Veneers

wood veneer 1

image source

wood veneer 2

image source

wood veneer 3

image source

Creative Ideas:

faux veneer card with copic 1

faux veneer card with copic 2

You can let these little faux veneers shine, and use them as the main focus of your card!  Here, I stamped the sweet bike and speech bubble, then carefully cut around each piece.  Once I colored them in (with Copic markers), they became the perfect embellishments for the scene I created on the tag.

faux veneer card with coral-colored ink 1

faux veneer card with coral-colored ink 2

I love to create patterns- it’s always awesome to take a small, unassuming image, and turn it into a great design!  Here, I stamped the triangle veneer in a fun coral-colored ink, focusing on the top portion of the card.  To create my banner, I die cut an open circle (using two concentric circle dies), then folded it and cut the ends to a “v.”  Using one of the sentiments in the set, I curved the stamp on my acrylic block, and stamped it in black ink.  I finished off the card with some black adhesive “pearls.”

faux veneer card with distress markers 1

faux veneer card with distress markers ink 2

Sometimes it’s fun to just experiment and go wild!  Here, I created a splashy background with Distress markers and a lot of water. Once it dried, it was the perfect canvas for some scattered veneer stars.  Because I used so  much color in the background, I kept everything else black and white to balance the card.

Below is an awesome card from Tasnim; she used the stamps as if they were real wood veneers.

faux veneer card with bike and stars 1

The bike and the stars were stamped in brown ink, colored with pencils and then trimmed to mimic the look of actual wood veneers. A kraft knife was used to cut out the white spaces withing the bike, a little tedious but all worth it for this sweet little bike!

faux veneer card with bike and stars 2

We can’t wait to see what you create with Faux Veneer!

Designer Spot: Iwona Palamountain

By in Daily Inspiration, Guest Designer Tags: , ,

Hello, Altenew fans! Iwona here, and it’s my pleasure to be a blog guest today. Now that you had a chance to acquire your favourite sets from the first release, how about some inspiration? I got seriously inky with some of my favourites and thought I’d share. (oh yes, I’ve so many favs in that lot!)

Ori Kami set

One of the most squeal-worthy sets from the release is, in my opinion, Ori Kami. What we know is that origami is one of the strongest emerging trends, but do you know how much potential lies in these dainty designs?

Granted, we can paper piece them, bring them to life with markers, coloured pencils or watercolour wash, but to me origami is all about dimension that lies in the folded paper and that’s what I wanted to convey.

Ori kami card 1

My elephant is of course flat, but I gave it the look of folded paper by piecing it with cardstock in two tones of aqua. Just like the classic two-tone origami paper which when folded, gives your finished piece dimension.

Ori kami card 2

This card was made with a baby arrival in mind, and to convey the message a bit more clearly (since I didn’t include any baby-wise elements on the card) I added a couple of die cut hearts, over which I applied a layer of Glossy Accents.

After stamping the sentiment from the same set, I cut the paper down to a skewed panel and mounted on the card front lined with Cosmo Cricket patterned paper.

 

I gave Ori Kami a different look, this time freestyle and relaxed. I paper pieced the butterfly with some Bo Bunny papers and stacked two of them together, securing with a metal brad.

Ori kami card 3

To the lot I added a Kaisercraft rose die cut, a paper doily and some bundled thread, and mounted it all together on Simon Says Stamp woodgrain paper. Then I added the stamped sentiment from the awesome Label Love set and sprinkled some Glimmer Mist.

Ori kami card 4

One more card from me, and this time I reached for the Faux Veneers set. I stamped the various speech bubbles and stars on the panel, creating the background which compliments the ‘hello’ die cut from Studio Calico. I also spiced up the die cut, by stamping the „hi!” word in black.

Ori kami card 5

For the rest of the design, I used various patterned paper scraps and a fun wood veneer camera. Now I’ve got two types of wood veneers, back to back on the same card :)

Ori kami card 6

I hope you like these! Thanks for having me, Jen & Tasnim :)

Well, aren’t these cards simply stunning?! We are very lucky to have Iwona design for us! Don’t forget to stop by her blog and leave a comment, for she is giving away one each of Ori Kami and Faux Veneer!

Focus: Dodecagram

By in Daily Inspiration, Stamp Focus Tags:

Hello!

Today we will be shedding some light on our stamp set Dodecagram.

Dodecagram stamp set

Name Origin: The set gets it’s name from the fact that it has a 12 pointed star based geometric pattern as one of it’s main images. Just as a five sided polygon is called a pentagon, a 12 pointed star is called a Dodecagram.

Design inspiration: Geometric patterns from architectural designs.

Creative Ideas: 

dodecagram simple stamping 1

Simple Stamping; here is one way of how you can use the solid stamps in this set to create patterns. To position each color block as precisely as possible, I took the aid of a stamp-a-ma-jig. You may use the solid stamps in different colors as I did on this card, or use them all in the same color to get a monochromatic look.

dodecagram simple stamping 2

My next card features simple stamping yet again, but this time using some of the outline images from the set. With a little bit of eye-balling, you can easily stamp this pattern in a matter of minutes. However, if you are like me, and are obsessed with perfection, you may use a stamp-a-ma-jig to guide your stamping progress.

dodecagram watercolor 1

On this card I stamped a different pattern using three outline images from the set. The pattern is stamped on water color paper which was first treated with a light orange and dark blue wash to create the blended color background.

dodecagram watercolor 2

For the pattern, I stamped them first using Versafine Sepia pigment ink, then to create the illusion of depth, I stamped each image again with white pigment ink, but this time slightly offset from the brown patterns.

dodecagram watercolor 3

Next I have another watercolor card. This time I used emboss resist to create a beautiful soft look. I stamped the sentiment “CELEBRATE” multiple times on a strip of white card stock, then added the little dots in between using a pen.

dodecagram watercolor 4

I love how the water color pools within the embossed boundaries!

 

Finally, we have this gorgeous card from Jen. She paper pieced each of those Dodecagrams and colored them with Copic markers.

dodecagram copic

Here is a close-up of how the star patterns look raised on foam tape.

 

We hope you have found some inspiration here!

«< 110 111 112 113 114