Pink & Green Floral Thanks

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! I hope all of you had a wonderful year. I was fortunate enough to spend lots of time crafting this year.

The making of this card:
I stamped the Altenew Thank You 2022 stamp set that I received as a surprise gift in the mail. This gift helped push me back to my coloring. So, thank you for that! I stamped the flower in black ink and then colored it with Altenew markers R437, R318, R403, R601, G702, G715. Then, I fussy cut the image. I used the grid like die cut in green. Then, I cut it down and made it into an accent strip. I decided to separate the 2 flowers. After I fussy cut those, I glued several strips of paper to the back of the flowers to give them dimensions.

I decided to stamp the sentiment, thanks, onto the same shade of green paper as the accent strip. I stamped it with a white pigment ink and actually had success! Hooray! I used a light pink cardstock and ink blended over it with the Rouge ink color. I cut this piece slightly larger than the green strip of paper and glued them together. I placed them towards the bottom of the card. And there you have it! My card to wrap up the year for the

Challenges:
Altenew Yearly Inspiration Challenge
Passion for Markers: Week 670–Mega Christmas challenge–use die cuts (promarkerchallenge.blogspot.com)
Alphabet Challenge Blog

December 31, 2022December 31, 2022 by cardswithcaitlinxo Categories: Thank you cardsTags: alcohol markers, altenew, altenew challenge, altenew markers, card inspiration, floral card 7 Comments

Beautiful Details

*Disclaimer: Some links on my site are affiliate links which at no cost to you, help pay for my blog.* Affiliate Disclosure Find this card on Instagram

Hey Y’all! I’m back with another AECP card. Rather than packing for our overnight hospital stay for our little one, I put together this card. Priorities. Because who doesn’t enjoy throwing things in a bag last minute?! Lol. In all reality, this card helped me focus on something else. Isn’t that the beauty of art though??

This was probably my favorite course I’ve taken. This really pushed me to try something new, watercolor pencils! I loved the detail I was able to acheive with this flower! I would pencil in a few details and expand the color with water. With this remember, less is more. After 2 or 3 rounds, I decided to do direct brush to pencil to give a few shadows that extra pop. I think that made a huge difference! Then, I took ink directly from the pencil again but, with extra water and splattered it. I did this until I was happy with the results. For the final touch I stamped congrats on your accomplishments sentiment.

My color choices were inspired by the current My Favorite Things Color Challenge. I also really wanted to do watercolor because I just found out that I was accepted to join the Design team for Happy Little Stampers starting next month for their watercolor team! Super exciting! Thank you for reading this post and happy crafting! I appreciate each and every comment!

Before we get to the products I used, did you know Altenew is offering free shipping right now?! Use code HAPPY8AF for orders over $29 until August 31st.

Products I used:
Altenew Airbrushed Flowers
Altenew Build a flower: Columbine
Watercolor Pencils
Concord & 9th Ballet Paper
Altenew 6 Floral Crisp Dye Mini Set
Shades of Purple Crisp Dye Ink Mini Cube Set

Challenges:
Color Challenge 194 – MFT Stamps
Happy Little Stampers: Watercolour Challenge
Pammie’s Inky Pinkies

August 3, 2022August 30, 2022 by cardswithcaitlinxo Categories: AECP CardsTags: aecp level 2, altenew, card making, floral card, watercolor 8 Comments

Beyond Basic Backgrounds

Hello y’all! I hope y’all are having a great day! I’m back with another project for the AECP Level 2! I’m excited to share with y’all this birthday card I made with the Beyond Basic Backgrounds class in mind. Throughout making this course I was very drawn to the vellum accents Lydia Evans would use! I knew that I had to figure out a way to incorporate that into a card!

I decided for my beyond basic background that a watercolor background would be fun! I used Altenew dye inks to achieve this look. I stamped my flower and water colored it with inks as well. To give the flower some extra pzazz, I applied a shimmer with my glitter pen. Then, I fussy cut it. I felt like it needed something to make the flower pop though. So I decided to outline various parts in black.

To add my finishing touch, I gold embossed Happy Birthday onto the vellum and adhered it to the card.

July 26, 2022July 26, 2022 by cardswithcaitlinxo Categories: AECP Cards, Birthday CardsTags: aecp level 2, altenew, birthday card, card inspiration, card making, floral card 2 Comments

Magical Markers

Yellow flower with green stem on white card base with light blue subtly splattered. Strip of paper towards bottom horizontally colored same blue with the word thanks. Flower is towards bottom on the left side on top of the strip of paper and thanks is on the right side. — *Disclaimer: Some links on my site are affiliate links which at no cost to you, help pay for my blog.* Affiliate Disclosure Find this card on Instagram

Hello again! I had some time to sneak off to my craft room recently and work on an AECP course! In this course I was inspired to try alcohol markers on vellum! How fun is that?! I knew that I had to try this technique but, color choices are probably the hardest part for me when it comes to designing a card. I’m thankful for challenges like the Altenew Inspiration Challenge that gives clear direction on what colors to use! They have a new challenge every month! Once I chose my colors, I used a dabbing motion to for the petals of the flower and did ‘normal’ strokes on the leaves and stems.

I then did direct ink to paper with Polar Bear ink from Altenew and cut that strip down and stamped thanks on it. Before adhering these elements on the card, I put polar bear ink down on my glass surface and mixed it with shimmer spray. I then splattered the background lightly with that color mixture.

The dreaded gluing of vellum! Here’s a tip (a messy tip but, it’s a tip): Apply liquid glue onto your finger and spread it around the entire back of the vellum! This way you can’t see it when you adhere it to your project. Make sure you move quickly though! Liquid glue dries quicker than you’d think.

Markers I used:
G702, G715, Y204, WG903, Y911
Stamps used:
Bold Floral Stamp Set
Mini Delight: Victorian Stamp & Die Set

Challenges:
I firmly believe challenges help us become better artists. I highly encourage you to try some out!
Through The Craft Room Door
Try it on Tuesday
A Place To Start: CHALLENGE #072022

July 26, 2022August 6, 2022 by cardswithcaitlinxo Categories: AECP Cards, Thank you cardsTags: aecp level 2, altenew, card making, floral card, handmade card 8 Comments

Creative Watercolor Media

Hello y’all! Hope all is well! For today’s card I put into use a technique I learned from my AECP course Creative Watercolor Media. I used Metallic spray to paint with! How fun is that?

I only have 2 metallic sprays but wanted to do something more with my colors. I decided to try adding reinkers to my colors and it worked! With my purple, I used an Altenew Frosty Pink reinker.

My green was a little too blue for my taste for the leaves, so I decided to try various reinkers. I found swatching on colors next to the flowers was the best option. To lighten up the color I did use both a gold and silver metallic watercolor in various swatches. I love how the leaves turned out! We often forget that leaves aren’t one color in nature and this method helped me achieve the multicolored look!