Happy Wedding | Card

Hello everyone!

If you haven't yet checked out my Altenew | A Year in Review Blog Hop post yet, please check it out HERE. You have a chance to win a $30 gift certificate from Altenew + receive one of my handmade cards :)

Getting a chance to be a part of the Altenew Blog hop got my creative juices flowing & I have another card to share based on their current challenge at the blog which is to pick a favourite challenge graphic from the past year & create a project based on it. I have gone with Amy's June Challenge. It's such a pretty palette & so perfect for the wedding.

I wanted to replicate the wedding bouquet graphic on my card so I decided to work with heat-embossing on vellum. In real life, this looks so beautiful. Unfortunately, I'm not able to capture the colours so well on camera :(
I stamped the flowers, leaves & foliage from the Altenew Beautiful Day Stamp set on some 40 lbs. vellum, heat-embossed it using a super fine white Embossing Powder & watercoloured the images using Tombow Brush Pens.
I created the background card panel using three shades of Distress inks - Shabby Shutters, Twisted Citron & Squeezed Lemonade by painting them with a brush on the panel. I then die-cut all the images using the coordinating Beautiful Day die.
I finished off the card by adding a sentiment which comes from the Altenew Vintage Roses set, another of my absolute favourites and I think the font is really sophisticated and went will with this card. I also added some Prima Marketing Glass Glitter in Platinum using some Multi Medium Matte & few paint splatters.

I hope you will like my card & the interpretation. Do let me know what you think of it.

Have a nice day everyone!

Altenew | A Year in Review Blog Hop

Hello, crafty friends!
Today, I'm excited beyond words to be joining the Altenew A Year in Review Blog Hop. I'm so honoured to be a part of this hop. We have some amazing inspiration & prizes to give away so let's get started, shall we :)

If you came here from the talented Virginia Lu's blog, you're on the right track. If not, do check out the complete blog hop list below.


PROJECTS :
I'm sharing some of my favourite cards I made this year using Altenew products. I'm not including a detailed description of each card, rather sharing a direct link to the blog post as this is a very picture-heavy post and I don't want to bore you :)

Original post HERE

Supplies used - Altenew Peony Bouquet Stamp set, Altenew Vintage Flowers Stamp set, Altenew Sentiments and Quotes Stamp set and Altenew Red Cosmos Mini Cube Set.

Original post HERE

 Supplies used - Altenew Doodle Blooms Stamp set, Altenew Doodle Blooms Die set, Altenew Cotton Candy ink pad, Altenew Mango Smoothie ink pad, Altenew Forest Glades ink pad.

Original post HERE

Supplies used - Altenew Beautiful Day Stamp set.

Original post HERE

Supplies used - Altenew Peony Bouquet Stamp set, Altenew Vintage Flowers Stamp set, Altenew Red Cosmos Mini Cube Set, Altenew Green Fields Mini Cube Set.

Original post HERE

Supplies used - Altenew Vintage Flowers Stamp set, Altenew Beautiful Day Stamp set, Altenew Warm Sunshine ink, Altenew Red Cosmos Mini Cube Set, Altenew Green Fields Mini Cube Set.

Original post HERE

Supplies used - Altenew Peony Scrolls Stamp set, Altenew Label Love Stamp set, Altenew Painted Flowers Stamp set.

PRIZES :
Altenew is giving away a $30 gift certificate to 6 lucky winners - selected from the comments across all of the blogs in the hop. You have until Wednesday, January 4th at 11:59 PM ET to enter, and the winners will be announced on the Altenew blog on Friday, January 6th.

I will also be giving away ONE handmade card from my favourites if you win. Please leave a comment on this blog post by Friday, January 6th at 11:59 PM ET for a chance to win. I will announce the winner on Sunday, January 8th on my blog.


PROMOTIONS :
Altenew is running a special shipping promotion now through Friday. Make sure to enter the code at checkout to take advantage of this special deal!

Enjoy FREE U.S. shipping on all retail orders with code GOODBYE2016 at checkout and $7 OFF international shipping on orders over $17 with code WELCOME2017 at checkout. Offer ends Friday, December 30th at 11:59 pm EST. (Retail orders only. Not valid on prior purchases. Cannot be combined with other coupon codes.)


GET HOPPING :
Next on the hop is the super awesome Laura Bassen. I am also sharing the list of all the participants on the hop.

Altenew

Yana Smakula

Sveta Fotinia

Erum Tasneem

Jennifer McGuire

May Sukyong Park 

Virginia Lu

Hussena Cal (That's ME!)

Laura Bassen

Svitlana Shayevich

Laura Jane

Therese Calvird

Isha Gupta

Marika Rahtu

TaeEun Yoo

Anna Kossakovskaya

Kristina Pokazanieva

Natalia Zubkova

Debby Hughes

You can also follow me on my Instagram profile @hussena_cal

Thank you so much for dropping by and leaving me a comment. Hope you have a great day!

Congrats | Card

Hello, everyone!

I have a card to share today which I created for the Altenew A Year in Review Challenge. I am slowly getting my mojo back and decided to create a card for the challenge. Here's a look at what I created :

You can see the gray stenciling more closely here.

To create my card, I first die-cut a card panel using one of my Gina Marie Designs die. I then stenciled on the panel using the Heidi Swapp Square Lattice stencil using Hickory Smoke Distress ink.
Then, I started to work on the focal of my card. I used the Altenew Peony Bouquet stamp set to stamp all the flowers and leaves. The flowers were stamped using the Altenew Red Cosmos inks. For the outermost layer, I decided to heat-emboss them using some gold embossing powder. I coloured the leaves using Hickory Smoke Distress ink. Once this was done, I fussy-cut all the images and popped them on some foam tape for dimension. I also added a tiny flower from the Altenew Vintage Flowers set. For the sentiment, I used the Altenew Sentiment & Quotes set which was also gold heat embossed. I added few Nuvo Drops in shades of pink to finish off my card!

I am playing along with Therese's Challenge from the month of August. I haven't worked with this colour combination before & was really happy to try it out.

That's it for today, I hope you like my card. I would love to hear your views on it!

Have a nice day everyone!

Christmas Card | One

Hello friends!
I'm back today to share a Christmas card I made recently. I don't usually work with such stamps often, but I am glad I finally gave them a try. Here's a look at what I came up with :

To create this card, I took a A2 sized white card panel and did some Distress ink blending using shades of blue to do the night sky. Then using the Heidi Swapp Confetti stencil and white embossing paste by Wendy Vecchi, I created the falling snow. I added some white glitter to the paste when it was wet to give it some extra shimmer. Next, I die-cut the snowy hills using a die by MFT and added some Ranger Clear Rock Candy Distress Glitter to the edge using Glossy Accents. This gives a beautiful snow-like effect and adds more dimension to your project.
Now for the main focal of my card, I stamped and coloured the images from the Mudra Santa & Friends set on watercolour paper using Faber Castell watercolour pencils. I fussy-cut the images and added them on some foam dots. I stamped the sentiment on the base of my card. Finally I die-cut the stenciled background using a scalloped rectangle frame from MFT and added it to my card base.

I'm entering my card in Winter Wonderland - Frame it/Night Scene, My Time to Craft - Christmas Animals, Crafty Catz - Christmas in Non-traditional Colours and QKR Stampede - Non-Traditional Christmas Colors

I hope you liked my card. Please do leave me your comments/suggestions below. I would love to hear what you think.

Have a nice day everyone!

Black & Gold | CAS Card

Hi, everyone!
I finally got some time to share my cards which I made for Mudra last month. There are lots of awesome stamps which were released and here's my card using one of them. This set was designed by a very close friend, Ruchi of Ruchi's Crafeteria. This is a very simple design and can easily be mass produced.

To make this card, I took a piece of black cardstock measuring 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 inches and die-cut it using a Gina Marie Stitched Frames die. Next, I prepped up my card surface for heat-embossing using the EK Success Powder Tool (This is used to remove the static from the paper). I used the Leaves stamp set for stamping on the two corners using Versamark Embossing ink and heat-embossed it in gold. (Tip - Since the leaves are pretty intricate, always use a Super Fine Detail embossing powder while heat embossing. Using a normal embossing powder will give you very thick & unclear images). I added two butterflies from the Butterfly Layers set which I had heat-embossed in gold and colored using Distress inks. For one of the butterflies, I cut off one part of the wing to create a silhouette shape. I wanted the sentiment to be a bit bold so I heat set the sentiment from the same set - Butterfly Layers and adhered it in the middle. I added two strips of gold paper to enhance focus on the sentiment. I added few tiny flowers from the Bunny Wishes set to finish off my card.

Linking my card to the Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes Challenge, heARTful Stamping- Anything Stamped, and WOW Embossing Powder Challenge.

Have a nice day everyone!

Mudra Christmas Cards | Sneak Peek

Hi, bloggy friends!

Today I have some Christmas cards to share on the Mudra blog using their newest stamp release. Here's a sneak peek for you :

Please head over to the Mudra Craft Stamps blog to check out the full cards. I hope you like what I have created :)

Have a nice day everyone!

Watercoloring with Altenew

Hello, friends!

I am blogging after quite a bit & I am really sorry if I have not dropped by your blogs & left you some love. I will definitely take out time & visit your blogs soon :)

Today I have a card to share which I have created for the Altenew challenge. It's been quite a while since I played along with their challenges. 

I have gone totally out of my comfort zone & created a single layer card using watercoloring & masking, which if you know my style, is totally something new to me. Here's my card :

To make my card, I used the flowers from the Beautiful Day set & the leaves are from the Peony Bouquet set. The sentiment is also from the Beautiful Day set. I have tried to do some loose watercoloring using Distress inks. I first stamped by flowers using Altenew inks - Warm Sunshine & Rouge. I masked the flowers & stamped the leaves using the Forest Glades ink. Then, I stamped the second layer of the flower using - Worn Lipstick & Squeezed Lemonade Distress inks, then using a waterbrush I just spread around the colours loosely. Did the same with the leaves. Finally, I colored the background using Cracked Pistachio, Mermaid Lagoon & Chipped Sapphire Distress inks. For the finishing touches, I added a few clear sequins from The Ton Rose Gold Rush Couture Mix and black paint spatters. 

I was totally inspired by the colours of the Altenew Inspiration Challenge. I loved working with these colours on my card!

Also linking my card to the Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes challenge.

I hope you like my card. I would love to hear your feedback on it. 

Thank you so much for dropping by!

Sneak Peek

Hi, friends!
I am blogging after a short break. I know it's been long since I visited your blogs, but I hope to do it soon :)
In the meantime, I have some cards to share today on the Mudra blog using their November release. Here's a sneak peek for you :

Please do visit the Mudra blog to see the complete cards and if you like them, please do leave me a comment :)

Have a nice day everyone!

Shabby Chic Floral Card | Photo Tutorial

Hello, bloggy friends!
I am sharing a shabby-chic card after a very long time. My current love is making stamped cards, but I do like to make layered cards from time to time. I made this for my Guest Post at Itsy Bitsy. You can check it out HERE, if you haven't already.

Here's a look at my card first :

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I also have a small tutorial to share on how I created the background for my card and the products used.

Step 1 - I have used a peach colored card base which was sent to me in the kit along with a piece of pattern paper which I have distressed using a pair of scissors & colored the edges using two different shades of Distress inks.

Step 2 - After distressing, I glued the pattern paper to the cardbase & then using a stencil from Itsy Bitsy (Floral) and some Modelling Paste, I did some stenciling using a Spatula to add some texture. I also added a bit of Distress ink to the Modelling Paste to give it a hint of colour.

Here is how it looks once the stenciling is done!

Step 3 - This is what I have used for embellishing my card. The Pattern papers that you see on the left were the ones I have worked with & the little flower embellishments were created using flowers from this set. I absolutely love the Glitter Paper from Itsy Bitsy & I have used it for die-cutting my leaf & foliage. Also used some dies for embellishing my card.

This border die by Spellbinders is absolutely regal & so intricate. I absolutely love using this.

I'm linking my card to the Simon Says Stamp - Use Pink, Happy Little Stampers- Mixed Media Challenge (Nature), Fab n Funky - Fabulous Flowers, Fusion - I'm going with the inspiration picture this time. (I'm inspired by the colours of the florals) and Cards 4 Galz- Use atleast one die.

I hope you like this card of mine. I would love to hear your comments/suggestions regarding it.

Have a nice day everyone!

Florals & some stamping!

Hello, friends!

I am sharing a card today which is totally stamped. I have used Mudra sets for this one! Here's a look at my card :

To create this card :

I first took a 4 1/4 inch by 5 1/2 inch card panel & stamped the word 'happy day' all over the card front using my MISTI and the Brushed Alphas set. This background took some time to create as each alphabet had to be stamped individually since this font is in cursive, but as you can see the end result is quite striking. 

Once I had stamped the background, I die-cut a semi-circle from the side of the card front using a Spellbinders circle die. Then I stamped the Gerberas & leaves using various colours of Altenew inks, and fussy-cut them & arranged it on the card panel.This card panel was foam mounted on to a plain white cardstock and the semi-circle space that was left after die-cutting has been distressed using Tumbled Glass Distress ink to add a bit of colour. I've added some flowers & foliage from a previously released set called Botanical Blooms. Finally added some Pretty Pink Posh sequins to finish off my card.

I'm linking my card to these challenges :

The Flower Challenge, Crafting with Dragonflies- Let's go floral, The Crazy challenge - Use Red, Use Your Stuff - Use two or more stamps ( I have used 3 different sets), and Make My Monday - I have used the colours black, red and white predominantly in my card.

I hope you like this attempt of mine! Do leave me your comments below :) Would love to hear from you!

Thanks Card | Photo Tutorial

Hi, bloggy friends!

I have a card to share today I made using various stamps & dies from Altenew. Here's a look at what I created :

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Here’s a tutorial on how I made it :

Step 1 : I first die-cut a card panel for my base then using the Altenew Die – Thanks, I die-cut a sentiment using the Crate Paper Craft Market 6 X 6″ Paper pad & ran it through my Big Shot machine.

Step 2 : Then, I die-cut the word from my card panel base also & inlaid the previously cut die-cut from the pattern paper into the card base.

Step 3 : I stamped some flowers & leaves using the Altenew Floral Motifs stamp and colored it using Heidi Swapp Color Shine Mists.  I fussy-cut the images & popped them on foam dots.

Step 4 - Lastly,  I added few black acrylic paint spatters and sequins in gold to finish off my card :)

Entering my card in the Creative with Stamps - Sentiment, Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes with Dies, Crafting by Designs- Add a sentiment, Create & Makes - Anything goes/Use of Die and STAMPlorations- Monthly Sketch.

 

I hope you liked my card & tutorial. If you have any questions regarding any of the products/techniques used, please leave them in the comments below. I would love to hear your comments/suggestions regarding it !

Have a nice day everyone!