Altenew Crafty Friends Blog Hop Day 2 + Giveaway

Hello, friends!

I am really excited to be joining the Altenew Crafty Friends Blog Hop today. This hop celebrates the amazing friendships formed through our mutual love for paper crafting and more.

I have several projects to share today featuring many of my all time favourite Altenew stamps and more, and I hope you will enjoy seeing them. If you're here from the lovely, Sara Naumann's blog, then you're on the right track. You will also find the full blog hop list at the end of my post. 

I have been a part of the Blogger family for quite a few years now, and over a period of time, I have been inspired by many amazing crafters and their beautiful work. But the two main constants whose work always stands out for me is, Tasnim Ahmed's and Erum Tasneem's. And ironically, they both are a big part of Altenew as well. :) Both these crafters have such a unique style, and it's always a pleasure to see the new projects they have come up with. Erum's coloring is just out-of-the-world amazing, and Tasnim's work exudes such class and elegance. My cards for today's hop are totally inspired by these two talented crafting icons!

Most of you must be knowing that I am a BIG time floral enthusiast! I absolutely love incorporating flowers on every project I make. :D When I think of Altenew, the first thing that comes to my mind is their ever beautiful and elegant, floral layered stamps. I adore each and every stamp they make, and they are absolute must-haves for me!

I have made two cards for today's post, and you may notice, that both of them have a very similar design layout as well as similar colours. It so happened that after I finished making my first card, I had a few left over coloured flowers which I didn't want to go to waste. So, I decided to whip up another card in a very similar colour scheme. I would love to know which one you find better - the first or the second card?!

I have combined several of my favourite Altenew floral stamps on this card. I started by stamping the flowers from the Perfectly Perfect stamp set on Canson Montval Watercolor paper. I heat embossed the flowers in gold, and fussy cut them out. Next, I coloured them using the Zig Clean Colour Brush pens. 

After my flowers were coloured, I started working on my foliage. I stamped the leaves from the Build A Flower: Peony Blossom set using the Tropical Forest Mini dye inks. I also gold heat embossed and coloured some small flowers from the Amazing You stamp set. I love this set for all the little filler flowers it has! I used the same shades of Zigs that I used for colouring the bigger flowers. 

The sentiment comes from two different sets: I have combined the Perfectly Perfect stamp set and the Amazing You stamp set for creating my own sentiment. I wanted the card to have some more interest, so I adhered the Dotted Washi Tape on to White cardstock and punched out circles from it in several sizes to add to my card. No card is ever complete without some bling, so I also went ahead and adhered few gold sparkly sequins. That's it. This card was done!

ETA: I totally forgot to mention that my card was also inspired by this month's Altenew Inspiration Challenge colours. I loved the Christmas-sy colours and wanted to create a card using it.

My second card features the same stamp. I have also coloured the flowers in a similar fashion as above. 

The flowers on this card are from the Perfectly Perfect stamp set and were stamped, gold heat embossed, coloured, and fussy cut. The leaves are also from the same set and have been created using the same method as the flowers. I used three different shades of green markers to colour the leaves. 

I added some additional foliage to my card panel using several stamps from the Blooming Bouquet stamp set. I tucked in the flowers in between some leaves as well as added some delicate foliage pieces to make the floral arrangement look more complete. 

To complete the card, I added a sentiment which is from the Adore You stamp set. This is one of my most used sentiment stamps, and you might have seen me use it in several cards before too. I love the font and the message! I also added some sparkly gold sequins and ochre paint splatters to finish my card. 

 Next up, I have a gift box and a coordinating gift tag to share. I love using my Altenew stamps for various projects other than cards too, and love the elegant look they give to any project!

First up, I have this gift box to share. I created the box using a gift box die. The finished box measures 5 1/4" x 3 5/8" x 7/8". I used the Painted Flowers stamp set to stamp the roses on the lid of the box using the Tea Party Mini Dye inks. The leaves are also a part of the same set. 

I stamped the flowers all over the lid to give it the look of a floral wallpaper! I love the unique colours of the Tea Party dye inks and think they look really pretty. Here's how the box looks when opened:

To embellish the box, I die cut an oval frame from the Create-A-Wreath Die Set. I popped up the frame using white foam. I also wanted to include a sentiment in the centre of the gift box and decided to go with one from the Sketchy Floral stamp set. I also added few die cut flower foliage from the Painted Flowers set to frame the sentiment. 

I also made a coordinating gift tag to go along with my box. 

I kept this tag fairly simple! I used the Painted Flowers stamp set to stamp the roses on either side of my tag. Then, I stamped the coordinating leaves to give the roses a more complete look. I used the Tea Party Mini Dye inks for stamping the flowers and the Tropical Forest Mini dye inks for the leaves. The sentiment is from the Sketchy Floral stamp set.

Special Offer
FREE U.S. shipping with code CRAFTY18 or $5 OFF international shipping with code FRIENDS18 at checkout. Offer valid from 11/29/2018 at 12:01 am EST through 12/1/2018 at 11:59 pm EST. Not valid on prior purchases. Cannot be combined with other promo codes.

Prizes
Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 5 lucky winners and one Altenew Academy class to 5 lucky winners. There are also 12 awesome friends who are celebrating with us, and they are offering the following prizes:

My Sweet Petunia: 3 MISTI stamping tools(Memory, Original, and Mini)

Jennifer McGuire Ink: Altenew $50 gift certificate & 10 handmade cards

Online Card Classes: 3 class spots

Create and Craft TV: £50 gift certificate

Ellen Hutson LLC: $30 gift certificate

Chameleon Art Products: 1 pack of 5 Chameleon Pens

Stamp & Scrapbook Expo: $25 gift certificate

Butterfly Reflections Ink: $25 gift certificate

Simon Says Stamp: $25 gift certificate

Scrapbook & Cards Today Magazine: 2 copies of Scrapbook & Cards Today Fall 2018 issue

Scrapbook.com: $25 gift certificate

Tombow USA: 1 pack of 10 Dual Brush Pens

Be sure to leave comments by Sunday, December 9th, 2018 for a chance to win! 37 winners will be chosen at random from the comments left on all of these blogs listed below and will be announced on the Altenew Card Blog and Altenew Scrapbook Blog on December 15th, 2018.

Additional Giveaway 

The generous folks at Altenew have allowed me to giveaway a $20 gift certificate to ony lucky person who leaves a comment on this post. If you would like to be considered for the giveaway, please leave a comment by 12/8/2018. I will announce the winner on 12/09 on my blog.

Blog Hop Order: 

I'm the last stop on this hop! If you're starting the hop from my blog, then your next stop will be the Altenew Scrapbook Blog.

Altenew Scrapbook Blog

Vicky Papaioannou

Enza Gudor

Laurie Willison

Nicole Picadura

Ellen Hutson LLC

Lydia Evans

Olga Moss

Amy Tan

Therese Calvird

Galina Filippenko

Sveta Fotinia

Lisa Spangler

Anna Komenda

Scrapbook & Cards Today

Kymona Tracey

Vicki Boutin

Carissa Wiley

Agnieszka Malyszek

TaeEun Yoo

Sara Naumann

                         Hussena Calcuttawala  (You are HERE!)

I hope you liked all my projects. I am really thrilled and thankful to have been asked to be a part of such an amazing blog hop! I would love to know if you have any favourite(s). Thank you so much for stopping by!

Guest Post using CrafTreat Stencils | Part Two

Hello everyone!

I am back to share some projects I made using the amazing stencils from CrafTreat's September 2018 Release. I am in love with their layered florals and amazing background stencils. So much variety to work with here! I have a total of SIX projects to share today, so let's dive right into it!

Card One - CrafTreat Stencil - Tropical Leaves

I have used the Tropical Leaves stencil for my first card. This is such a fun stencil and is so versatile to work with!

To create this card, I began by die cutting a scalloped circle frame from Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock. Once the frame was die cut, I used two inks from Altenew's Tropical Forest Mini Dye inks to color the background using the Tropical Leaves stencil.

Next, I stamped, coloured, and fussy cut some animals and placed them on my card base where I had cut out the circle frame. I also fussy cut some leaves and popped them on foam dots to add some dimension to my card. I added a stamped and die cut sentiment to finish off my card.

Card Two - CrafTreat Stencils - 2 Step Peony & Tropical Leaves

I love combining my craft supplies to give them a new look and that's what I did for this card as well. I used two stencils - 2 Step Peony & Tropical Leaves to create this card. 

The peonies were coloured using Altenew's Rose Petal inks. I coloured, fussy cut them, and placed them on my light blue ink blended background to create the focal for my card. I used the Tropical Leaves stencil for creating the leaves on my card. I coloured them using Altenew's Tropical Forest Mini Dye inks and then fussy cut them to place on my card panel. 

I also added a mix of some Altenew filler flowers (from the Beautiful Day stamp set) to give a fuller look to the arrangement. I added a piece of black and white patterned paper on the bottom of my card which is from Papericious' Monochrome paper pack. Finally, I stamped a sentiment on my card panel and that's about it! I love how this card came together!

Next up, I am sharing a set of two bookmarks I made using the CrafTreat Stencil - Lily and Iris.

I really loved how these turned out! They make for such pretty gifts to be given to any bookworm! To create these bookmarks, I used the Lily and Iris stencil with the Tombow Colorless Blending Pen and dye inks to stencil the designs on the bookmarks. I used a colorless blending pen here so that it would add a soft look to the design. If you don't have dye inks in your stash, you can work with Distress inks as well. Distress inks are very vibrant in nature, but when used with a colorless blending pen give you very beautiful results.

I used Altenew's Shades of Purple Mini Dye inks + Distress ink - Twisted Citron + Tombow Colorless Blending Pen to create the bookmark on the left, while I used Distress inks: Peacock Feathers & Twisted Citron + Tombow Colorless Blending Pen to create the bookmark on the right. I wanted to leave them as is, but then decided to add some black paint splatters and a stamped sentiment to complete the look. 

Lastly, I have two money envelopes to share I made using stencils. These stencils can be used to create a lot of interesting designs on the background of envies. Here's how I used them!

Money Envelope One - CrafTreat Stencils - Leaf Pattern Background & 2 Step Peony.

I have to admit, this envelope isn't one of my favourites, because I ended up making a major mistake in the background. I wanted the coral flowers to have a grey backdrop, but unfortunately the grey ink I used turned out to be a dark grey which almost looks like black. But I still wanted to share it with you all to give you an idea on how to creatively stretch your stencils. I used the 2 Step Peony stencil to create the flowers on my envelope. I coloured and fussy cut them and placed it on a oval lace die cut. The background for the envelope was made using the Leaf Pattern Background stencil.

This is how the flap of the envelope looks. I extended the design to the back as well to give it a more finished look. The small rose bunch is made using the Mini Rose Background stencil.

Money Envelope Two - CrafTreat Stencil - Daisy Background

This envelope is more of my usual style and I am happy with the way it turned out! I used Sakura Modelling Paste mixed with Papericious Rajni Chawla's - Crystal Clear Glitter to create a white sparkly paste, and used this paste with the Daisy Background stencil to create the background. Once it dried, I used Distress inks - Squeezed Lemonade and Spun Sugar to create a watercolour splash on the background.

Here's how the background looks. The Papericious Crystal Clear Glitter adds a subtle shimmer to the background.

And here's how the flap of this envelope looks. I followed the same method to create the background even here. Doesn't it look pretty? 

I hope you liked my projects and found them inspirational. If you liked them, please do leave a comment below. I would love to hear from you! If you have any queries regarding any of the products or techniques used on my prooejcts, please feel free to ask me.

Thank you so much for stopping by!