4 Ways to Use Altenew April Release + Blog Hop
Hello everyone! I am so excited to be back with you today, sharing inspiration using the new April release from Altenew! To celebrate the new release, Altenew is hosting a huge blog hop, full of fabulous inspiration! If you have already been hopping along with us, you should have arrived from my super-sweet and talented friend, May Sukyong Park’s blog!
I was really looking forward to playing with the Watercolor Dots stamp set. The cute painted polka dot pattern with fun accent elements seemed like they would be awesome for creating colorful backgrounds… and I think they do! I used masking and a rainbow of Altenew ink colors to stamp the dot background; then I used black and slightly darker shades of colored inks to stamp the accents onto some of the dots.
I love balancing colors with, so I chose to die cut the beautiful You Are Loved die from three different colors of cardstock; this die is meant to be one single piece, but I trimmed each word out for something a bit different. For the color balancing, I made sure that the pink and teal colors were opposite of those colors in the background. This helps the sentiment stand out, but also have a cohesive look.
The card was finished off by adding some Spectrum Noir shimmer pen onto the words and some of the polka dots in the background.
This next card I created features the beautiful Mega Hello die and Mega Greetings stamp set. These greetings from both sets are indeed HUGE! The are so big that you could make a simple card like this one and it looks gorgeous because the greetings are the focal point.
In this card I die cut the word hello from a background I made with Tonic Studios’ Shimmer Powders. I layered the die cut onto a couple more hello words, giving the top layer lots of dimension. The rest of the sentiment is white heat embossed onto purple cardstock, which helps draw out the subtle purples in the hello die cut.
The card base features some pretty, dimensional gold paint splatters. I really love the look of Prima’s Art Alchemy acrylic paints; their metallics are so beautiful, and of course acrylic maintains its dimensionality. This adds the perfect finishing touch to a simple card like this one.
I had so much fun with the Mega Hello die that I had to create another card using it! This time I stamped some florals around the negative space that was created from cutting the watercolor paper. Then I painted the florals with Prima Watercolor Confections, filled in the background with a light wash of watercolor and even added a few doodled details!
I popped the negative space panel up off of a kraft card base and layered the word I had cut out of that paper off of that, creating an offset. The supporting sentiment I gold heat embossed onto purple cardstock was from the Strength Blooms stamp set, which is full of uplifting greetings (and pretty layering florals).
Speaking of those Strength Blooms florals… I used those here on this colorful card, along with the fun Gradient Stripes background!
The background was ink blended with Distress Oxide inks and I added a few splatters to it before trimming it down with the Gradient Stripes background die.
The flowers from the Strength Blooms stamp set are layering stamps and I chose specific colors from Altenew’s layering inks to best match the colors I used in the background. I have a definite rainbow theme going on here, and again, I tried to keep a balance between the colors in the background versus the colors in the florals.
The biggest floral within the arrangement is the pink blossom. Because it is the biggest, I made sure this one was opposite of the pink in the background that is on the top. This helps visually ground the colors, since there are lots of them in this card! I also chose to use navy for the sentiment label, as it is placed in the general area as the blue stripes and helps to subtly finish the mostly-hidden navy stripe in my background.
With so much color in this card, I kept the rest of the design fairly clean, and added just a few Sparkling Clear sequins tucked in and around the florals for a bit of sparkle!
I hope these cards have inspired you with fresh ideas for creating with some of the newest stamps and dies from Altenew! Be sure to keep reading for the next stop in the hop, plus giveaways!
Thanks for visiting with me today!
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Your next stop in the hop is another amazingly talented friend of mine, Svitlana Shayevich! You can also reference the entire hop order below:
Nina-Marie Trapani – you’re here! :)
To celebrate this release, Altenew is generously giving away a $50 gift certificate to 6 lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or Altenew Scrapbook Blog by Saturday, April 21st for a chance to win. Winners will be announced on the Altenew blogs on April 22nd.
I’m also giving away and $30 gift certificate to Altenew as well! You can leave a comment here on my blog for a chance to win, and I’ll be choosing the winner by April 21st (the winner will be announced shortly thereafter).
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WOW Nina, these are all awesome, love the Mega Hello word die (and the Thanks die too, for that matter!) You have done a fantastic job on all of your cards, as ever.
Oh my goodness, Nina Marie, your cards are so beautiful! Those 2 hello cards are so cool…that flowered background is the best! I really loved how you used that Gradient Stripe background die…those beautiful flowers really stand out!
The mayriad of colors are fantastic. Those polka dots are a great background.
Beautiful cards! Great cards!
I love the card with using the Large Hello die and it’s negative space where you created the colorful floral background!
Great cards Nina! Love your colorful style!
Fantastic cards Nina Marie! Beautiful, vibrant and happy. Love the shimmer powders.
I love all of your cards! They are the prettiest! I am very impressed.
These are FABULOUS! Love your style. ♥
I really like the colors in your hello word using the Mega Hello die. Beautiful! Thanks for also sharing the other techniques with the new release pieces. It really helps to see ways they can be used.
Beautiful cards, thanks for sharing.
Your cards are so bright and beautiful! I like the way you used the gradient stamp on the last card with the flowers! Gorgeous!
Love your designs and how you used the gradient die. Thanks for sharing!
Love the card with the large Hello die cut with the floral background.
Beautiful projects, Nina. I’m loving these large script sentiments.
Gorgeous cards!! I love the colors and designs!! Thanks for the inspiration!!
Super cute cards. Thanks for your examples!
Beautiful cards and great tips. I missed your fun, interesting video though. Hopefully soon
Beautiful cards! This is such a great release! I especially like the big words! Thanks for sharing!
Stunning cards! Love the big dies in this release.
Great cards! I love how you chose to use these new products. I really want to purchase the Gradient die, and then the stamp.
I love the big Hello die cards the most-they are all lovely; don’t get me wrong. Those two cards are so great! The inks that you combined for the first Hello card are wonderful and I love how you popped up the second Hello card and created your own flower background on the watercolor paper. The purple sentiment accented the card most excellently! Thank you so much!
I really like that gradient stamp and die! Wish I could afford both, but I’m going to get the stamp for now. Love how you used the die! Beautiful colors and your floral hello card is awesome! Thanks for the inspiration.
Beautiful work! I love the mega word dies in the new release!
your cards are just gorgeous!