Altenew Educator "For the Love of Flowers" Blog Hop and Linky Party + Giveaway

Hi! Welcome to the latest blog hop by Altenew Educators. You must have come here from Michelle Ochoa Murray. Isn’t she amazing? If you find a broken link, you'll find a master list of the hop links at the Altenew Card Blog.

I completed my Altenew Educator Certification Program in March 2019. It was a great experience and I am so glad I opted for it! I have really enjoyed the support from the Altenew team and the great group of Altenew Educators.

I am sure you will agree that Altenew is the best in terms of great designs, especially their florals. It is very easy to create beautiful cards with the Altenew stamps and inks. But I wanted to take this further and explore other mediums. Coming from a textile design background, I have a great affinity for working with fabrics. I decided to use these products on fabric. Here is my first project.

I started with a simple fabric pouch made of unbleached cotton. These are normally sold as bases for painting or decoupage. I like the cream color and the heavily starched surface. I used black pigment ink and the Floral Art stamp set to stamp the images on the pouch. After letting it dry, I added colors using the Altenew Crisp dye inks. I was pleasantly surprised by the crisp stamping and the brightness of colors. I used the darker shades of the colors so that they would show up nicely against the cream background.

After my stamping was done, I allowed the inks to dry overnight. Here is a close-up of the stamping.

To make the colors permanent, I simply applied decoupage medium over the entire pouch with a brush. Just remember to work fast as the medium might smudge the inks slightly. Once the medium was dry, my stamped pouch was ready to use. Here is another look at my completed pouch.

Encouraged by the success of the pouch, I decided to extend my experiments further. I have always felt the beautiful layered floral designs by Altenew are very suitable for decoupage designs. I made a small fabric bag this time.

I tried it first with regular tissue papers. Though I got the stamping part right, the tissue paper itself was too delicate and tore. I decided to use a kitchen towel instead and had better luck.

Kitchen towels are thicker and sturdier which makes it easier to work with them. I stamped the flower from the Beautiful Day stamp set in shades of pink and red. I cut masks out of used regular copy paper and used those instead of masking paper. Once the towel was dry, I carefully applied it to the bag with decoupage medium. Here is a closer look.

I like the texture that the kitchen towel brings to the surface. I added details with chalk paint and crackle medium around the paper. I also rubbed some metallic gold was to enhance the crackle and added some sparkly embossing paste to the center of the flowers. Once the bag was completely dry, I covered the entire design with decoupage medium. Here is the completed bag.

Since this bag is again made of unbleached cotton, it is quite stiff and stands up well. The design also lies flat, with just a little texture from the kitchen towel and the crackle.

Another angle

I am very happy with both my fabric projects. Here is a look at the bag and the pouch together.

Moving on, I decided to do another non-card project. I recently restarted scrapbooking. I used to do a lot of digital scrapbooking in the past. Last year I did a few layouts and found that I really enjoy the larger canvas that scrapbooking offers. Here is my layout.

This picture was taken 3 years ago at Hyderabad. We were all friends throughout 5 years of college and have kept in touch. We all got together at Hyderabad after over 20 years. It was an amazing trip and this picture was taken when we went out site-seeing. The dress theme of the day was red. So naturally the layout had to be red! I started with a sheet of red paper and adhered two ivory circles to it. I also stamped the outline images from the Japanese Mum set on the upper left and bottom right corners to give some texture.

I took a piece of jute and frayed the edges. This served as my mat behind the photo. I also lightly inked the edges of the photo with brown ink.

To create the flowers and leaves, I first smooshed several sheets of paper with green, yellow, orange and red watercolors. I die-cut the sheets with the Fantasy Floral die set. I also die-cut some green handmade paper for leaves. I assembled the flowers and then added them to the layout. Here is a closer look at the left side

And the right side.

I decided to not have a title and instead decided to go with a small sentiment which fit the layout perfectly! It is from the Leaf Canopy stamp set. I heat embossed it with white embossing powder and popped it up on the layout with some foam tape.

To finish, I die-cut a few more circles out of ivory paper and added them to the layout. Here is another look at the completed layout.

I couldn’t resist making a card with the beautiful Leaf Canopy stamp set which I recently bought. I decided to go with some loose water coloring and here is the result.

I started with a piece of watercolor paper and the solid stamp from the Leaf Canopy set. I sprayed the paper with water and then inked the stamp with a mix of Altenew Crisp inks and distress inks. I stamped the image after misting the stamp with water for a diffused impression. I repeated this process until I was happy with the final look.

I added some splatters with the diluted inks. Once the paper was completely dry, I used the outline images and stamped them slightly offset. I heat embossed with gold embossing powder. I also added some gold embossing along the edges of the panel.

The sentiment is from the Signature Words die-set. I simply die-cut it from a scrap of black paper and adhered it with liquid glue to the panel.

To finish, I popped up the panel over a black card base with foam tape.

I hope you enjoyed my projects and will try some of the techniques. I would love to know which project is your favorite. Also, please feel free to ask me any questions you might have. You can continue this hop with the super talented Terri Marie Koszler. Or you can start at the beginning with the Altenew Card Blog. I have also included the entire list of participating blogs for you.

Blog Hop Order:

Altenew Card Blog

Michelle Ochoa Murray

Nandini Karmarkar - You are here!

Terri Marie Koszler 

Irina Fonina

Amy Hill

Vicki Finger

Laurel Beard

Teri Stokes

Neha Aggarwal

Nenette S. Madero

Nancy McClelland

Eva Bussom 

Amber Rain Davis

Rosie Neustaedter

Patty Mello

Helen Kalb

Teri Wilson

Christine Pennington

Maryam Sharara 

Nicole Watt 

Virginia Lu

Prize info: No Altenew blog hop is complete without some great prizes. This time Altenew is giving away a $30 gift certificate to 3 lucky winners! Please leave a comment here on the Altenew Card Blog by 3/11/2020 for a chance to win. We’ll also draw a winner to receive a $15 gift certificate from the comments left on each designer’s blog on the blog hop list below. All winners will be announced on the Altenew Card Blog on 3/14/2020.

There’s MORE! We will pick 2 of our favorite handmade creations from those who joined the linky party and they will each receive a $15 gift certificate to our store!

Special offer: Save 15% off on ALL Stamp & Die Bundles from 3/5/2020 at 12:01 AM EST until 3/6/2020 at 11:59 PM EST. https://altenew.com/collections/stamp-die-bundles  No code needed to enjoy this sale! Not valid on previous purchases. Excludes February 2020 release products.  

That is all for now.  I hope you will consider following my blog and keep visiting me often. I look forward to your comments. They always make me happy!

Love,

Nandini