Karmaisma Studios: Altenew Inks

Greetings, fellow card-makers!

Thanks for stopping by and spending a few minutes with me today!

I'm taking a break from some of my regularly scheduled assignments and posts to share a card with a mashup of products from two of my favorite companies - The Stamp Market and The Greetery.

If you aren't familiar with either of these companies, then do yourself a favor and take a couple minutes to browse their sites! Here are a couple highlights on why I love these two brands.

The Stamp Market has so many super fun products! I love Amy's bold style and the trendy look of her stamps and dies. She also just launched a line of ink pads which I am SO excited about and will be ordering soon! Her inks are made with foam pads, so the coverage you get will be ahh-mayyyz-ing!! The Stamp Market also offers innovative dies which create three dimensional flowers, super cute decorative ribbons, and also some beautiful patterned paper!

The Greetery is a newer company to join the crafting party, and BOY OH BOY, where they worth the wait!! I am such a shabby-chic, vintage-style loving girl in my heart, and when I saw the designs from this company, I did a happy dance! Betsy's style is sweet and lovely, and I feel like a true artist when I create with these products!

So let's get to the card, shall we??? This one would be super easy to create on your own!

I started out by cutting a 4.25 x 5.5 inch piece of kraft cardstock and laying it into my MISTI stamping tool. I inked up the Jumbo Plaid background stamp with Unicorn White pigment ink and then stamped it down.

While the pigment ink was drying, I went ahead and stamped and die cut the rest of my elements!

After using the Skinny Alpha dies to cut out all the letters for my sentiment, I then stamped and die cut out my fruit and leaf images with the Lemon Blossom stamp and die set and various Altenew ink cubes (Greens, Yellows, Corals, and Blues).

Now it's time to put the card together!

I glued down all my images, and at this point you might be tempted to freak out, thinking that these cute little guys might be totally obstructed by your letters at the end. But don't worry! These alphabet dies are awesome because they are so skinny, so you can still see ALL the elements of the card at the same time, and they won't compete with each other or distract from the focal point of the card - which is that large sentiment!

So after all the fruit and floral images were glued down, I just glued down my letters (tip - use a ruler so that you can make sure your letters are all lined up straight!), and then glue the finished panel on to a cut and scored 4.25 x 5,5 inch card base.

Well that's it for me today! Thanks again for joining me and have yourself a crafty day!!

Kelly

Hey there, friends!

Thanks so much for stopping by and spending some time with me today!

I just had to pop in and share a project I made with the recent release from The Greetery. I have been swooning over these stamps and dies since they first hit the market a few months ago. Betsy has knocked it out of the park over and over again with her designs, and I've had so much fun creating with them!

I also have some tips to share with you along the way, so let's dive in!

When I first saw this stamp set, I was a little intimidated, to be honest! It's a layering set with several layers, but never fear! The stamp set comes with VERY helpful guides and notes actually printed on the packaging, so it takes a lot of the guess work out of the layers!

I highly recommend beginning your project by actually using the die to cut out the wreath piece first. This is definitely a stamp set in which I encourage you to buy the coordinating die - because it makes lining up all the layers in the image a lot easier! I put the die cut wreath in my MISTI and that made lining up the layers a lot easier, too!

And another helpful tip - I think a lot of us are used to cutting away all the connecting pieces of the die without even thinking - but don't cut this one apart! You need both parts to cut the wreath out correctly, so don't separate them! If your machine creates an imprint on your die cut piece from the connecting piece of metal, don't fret - the stamping will cover it up!

I used several different colors of ink to stamp all the layers. The first layer was the leaf layer. Then followed by the wheat layer, mushroom and acorn layers, berries layer, etc. Having mini ink cubes definitely helps because you can ink up smaller areas and that's helpful for inking several different parts on the same layer.

After I had finished the stamping, I actually added details with my colored pencils - this is an added step which can seem unnecessary but I promise it's worth it! It really makes the finished image come to life!

After all the coloring was finished, I stamped a sentiment on the negative space from the die cut wreath, and then cut and scored a 4.25 x 5.5 inch card base. I glued a piece of patterned paper (trimmed down to 4.25 by 5.5 inches) on to the front of my card base and then pulled together the rest of the card.

I glued down the wreath on to the card and then glued down the negative inside piece with the sentiment on it.

For a finishing touch, I added a three dimensional bow sticker at the top of the wreath that I had in my stash!