Hi all! I’m so proud to share with you that I’ve been accepted in the Altenew Academy Educator Certification Program and I’m so thrilled to be among the 80 or so members chosen so far! You should know by now that I love learning new techniques and new ways to improve my card making, so being part of this group is really a great motivation to increase my crafting knowledge!
As I have at least 20 courses to do before I can be qualified, I started straight away with my first course! Since I’m pretty bad at ink blending, I decided to start with “Easy Ink Blending Techniques” with Amy Lee, and I’m so glad I did as I found out why I’m so bad at ink blending! I also followed her advice to make ink swatches and I made 40 of them in one go…(not advisable for anyone with a tendency to get tendinitis in the wrists…LoL…) and a video sharing what I learnt while making these swatches, which you can find at the end of my post. In it there is also a close up side view of how to ink blend…and the reason why I was so bad at it before!
This is now up on my wall in my craft room and it was really handy for today’s card, when I needed to decide which blue would be the best one to coordinate with my blue flower on my card! I know it will come in handy when I’m thinking of colour combinations or different effects too. It was definitely the most useful thing I learnt from Amy’s class, among the other really useful tips and advice she gave. She’s such a good teacher too. While making my ink swatches with all the inks I have, I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that Altenew inks blend really well too so I will be using them for more than stamping now.
I have only taken that one course, for the moment, but I feel I have improved so much in my card-making already and I hope this card shows it. The water-colouring aside, which was not taught in this lesson, the idea to have an interesting border and using inks to create a personalised coloured card base, with flecks of water, all came from this course. I think it really made my card more beautiful don’t you think? Normally I would just have left it one layer or matted it on a coloured card base. I would never have thought of inking my card base. I love the idea that I can now create a card base that will coordinate with any ink colour I have used on my stamps!
Now to the card itself. The flowers from Altenew’s Botanical Garden stamp set was first stamped with Altenew inks on 300g watercolour paper and water-coloured with Winsor and Newton paints. I tried to follow the colour scheme in Altenew’s May Inspiration photo challenge. The sentiment comes from Altenew Bamboo Rose set and I chose it as I’m going to send this card to someone who has shown so much strength fighting against a health problem she has. This water-coloured panel was then die cut at the top with one of the dies from Concorde and 9th Birthday Stacks die. I blended the top of the card base, cut from Neenah Classic Crest card stock, with Mermaid Lagoon distress ink and flicked some water on it, then removed it with tissue to lift some ink from it. The water-coloured panel was then adhered to this distress inked card base and my card was done!
As promised here is my YouTube video about making ink swatches and the lessons I learnt from doing so. If you’re new to ink blending or like me, need to improve your ink blending skills, you might find my video quite helpful. I would also highly recommend Altenew Academy’s “Easy Ink Blending Techniques” if you want to improve your basic ink blending technique, or learn great ideas to use ink blending to bring your card making to another level!
Thanks for stopping by and I would love to hear your thoughts about my card and video. Your comments always make my day!
Have a great week!
Altenew’s inspiration challenge image – And I just realised I didn’t use the right blue for my card base! Next time I also have to put the inspiration image right next to my ink swatches!!
I’m also sharing this over at:
Crafter’s Castle – A new to me challenge blog with an Anything Goes with the optional topping of our favourite technique. This card has both my favourite techniques, water-colouring, and now ink blending!
Inspired by all the little Things – I love this image and especially the bouquet of flowers
Happy Little Stampers Watercolour challenge – without the CAS optional twist
Papercraft challenge – Flowers
Craft Stampers magazine – Take it Make it challenge
Congratulation Gwendolyn! I just love this stunning card which you coloured so beautifully. Thank you for all the ink blending tips.
Thanks for sharing with us at Happy Little Stampers.
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Beautifully coloured blooms, Gwendolyn … perfectly posed against your smooth ink blended and splattered background! Congratulations on joining the Altenew programme … and on your video … it’s clear you’re having heaps of fun already … and what a great start with the ink blending class (it’s so much fun getting all those lovely effects!). Thanks so much for playing along with us at Time Out! Anita 🙂
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Thanks so much Anita for such kind words! They’re like honey to my presently very sore throat. And yes I’m learning heaps and enjoying it!
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Feel better soon, Gwendolyn! Anita 🙂
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Thanks!
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This card looks absolutely wonderful! I love your ink blending (such a fab technique, isn’t it!) and your watercoloring looks amazing too. The stamps you chose and the color palette bring some sort of retroish fabric patterns to my mind. Great job! Thanks for joining us at Time Out!
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Congratulations on joining the Altenew programme, I can imagine there will be so much for you to learn and your cards will be even more amazing than they are now!! Absolutely love your flowers, your colouring is so gorgeous and vibrant, and that blue background really does make the blue flower pop. I’m so glad you shared this with us at TIME OUT, always love to see you here!!
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Thanks so much Shona. Your words made my day!
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Congratulations!!! How exciting!!! And your card is beautiful….seriously beautiful!!! I am in awe of your watercoloring skills! I also love the sentiment and the words on the beads. Thank you so much for entering our challenge at Crafter’s Castle this month….good luck 🙂
Hugs… Janie
DT
Crafter’s Castle
crafterscastle.blogspot.com
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Thanks so much for your kind words Janie!
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SO excited to see you are in the AECP!
GORGEOUS Floral arrangement on your card for today, and how wonderful to hear your voice in the video:)) Your video is FULL of tips, and I’m looking forward to seeing more videos from you! Thanks for joining us at Inspired By all the Little things too!
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Thanks so much for your encouraging comnents Laura Jane, i really appreciate it!
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Another great, great card for our challenge. I’m so glad I’m the one that may come to visit you blog.
I hope you will join us again soon.
-xiss- Renate.
(DT Papercraft Challenges)
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AWESOME write-up about the program and course! I can tell that you are really enjoying the AECP! This is so good to see and hear! Your inspired project is beautiful! Your ink swatches are so pretty (and helpful, too) on your wall…it is a good idea to do that practice! Thanks for doing the video also! Thanks so much for entering your beautiful work in Altenew AECP assignment Gallery. Beautiful colors and design. Well done!
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Thanks so much Virginia for your encouragement, exactly what i needed to hear. It gives me the boost i need after today’s event… and yes I am loving being part if AECP. Is there a social media tag for this program?
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Oh I am so pleased I read your post as I am the worst at Ink blending, I am adding your video to my ‘to do’ list. Your card is amazing, such vibrant colours and great to see you at Time Out
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Thanks so much Sandie! So glad my post was useful to you. Making ink swatches really helped in improving my ink blending, so I highly recommend it!
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Beautiful! Wonderful take on the inspiration photo!
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