Nancy Souza Level 1 Challenge Girl Power cards and gift box
This post is the second half of the end of Level 1 Project Challenge and for this part I focused on designing four cards and a packaging box for the cards. For this part of the challenge, I focused on using coordinating shades of a pink and shades of purple palette for the four cards and gift box. And the theme was flower related sentiments. I used many of the same Altenew stamp sets, inks, dies that I used for the Level 1 homework lessons, including the techniques and tips I learned after completing the lessons. I also created some of my own tips and techniques for the cards and materials that made stamping more user friendly when using the Altenew layering stamp/dies set/ink cubes.
Here are the stamp sets and coordinating Altenew materials I used-
Charmed stamp set- abstract flower and sentiments
Antique Rose stamp set/stencil/dies- layered roses and leaves
Wonderland stamp set/ coordinating dies- poppy like large stamp, stems and buds
Dahlia Blossoms stamp set/coordinating dies-layered stamps large and small flowers and coordinating dies
Forever and Always stamp set- anniversary set with many sentiments
Fancy Hello Die-single hello die
Gold Stripe Washi Tape- wide width Washi tape
Tips and Techniques- I numbered the ink cubes covers for the sets I purchased for the classes. This helped me line them up by color gradient first without uncovering them. This simple set eliminated the step of inking paper to determine how light or dark the ink cubes were prior to using. Suggestions- I would include the name or number of the ink sets on the bottom of the ink cube or a sticker on the side to match the ink cube back with the right cover. This simple step helped alot without guessing and selecting the wrong shade of ink I wanted to use.
Helpful Hint- I used the tip of using pencil marks for the layering stamped images. This was helpful as I had not used layered stamps prior to completing the lesson on layering . I also found using my MISTI stamping platform super helpful when using the layering stamps. I could set up each layer of the set, stamp many images then line up the next one in the set, ink and stamp the next layer until the flower was complete. I had more aligned flowers. Hooray! I found this technique when searching on the Altenew page on Pinterest.
Card 1- You Make My Life Blossom/ Technique- Layering Stamping
I selected this stamp as my first for my Girl Power card set. Using the layering set and coordinating dies was great practice using the rose layering stamp set. I purchased a set of colored ink cubes to use with layering stamps. I numbered the pink ink cubes to guide my selection of the colored ink I wanted to use for the layered rose image. I also used my MISTI stamp platform to stamp multiplies of each layer which made my layering more accurate. Previous I was tossing alot of my ink layered attempts as they did not line up correctly. I die cut the completed roses and accuracy in die cutting which was important too. I then used a curved scallop edge die cut from My Favorite Things for the printed paper. I then added a piece of white paper for the bottom and covered it with the wide gold stripe Washi tape and adhered it to the back of the scalloped die cut piece. It was ready to attach to the white card stock card base. The You Make My Life Blossom! sentiment was from another Altenew stamp set. I die cut the sentiment using a stitched oval die from My Favorite Things. A bundle of gold thread behind the oval and some foam tape to attach the oval. I layered the three roses and tucked the leaves behind the flowers. I used the focal element of three- 3 flowers and 3 leaves. A few pink glossy Nuvo drops for the center of each flower. The roses came out better with a bit more praetice.
Stamps and Supplies
Stamps- Altenew Antique Rose layering set, Altenew sentiment
Dies- Altenew coordinating dies, My Favorite Things scallop edge and stitched oval die
Inks- Altenew shades of pink ink cubes, VersaFine Onyx black ink, VersaFine Clair Green Oasis ink and Verdant ink
Supplies- Altenew washi tape, MISTI stamping platform, Sizzix die cutting maching, Scor Pal scoring tool, gold thread, 3M foam tape, 3M tape runner, Fiskars paper cutter, white glue, Nuvo glossy drops
Card 2-Live Life in Full Bloom/Technique- Masking and
Stenciling
For this card I used the masking technique for the Altenew Dahlia Blossoms stamp set. I stamped the first flower on the Neenah solar white card stock, one in each corner top and bottom. I stamped the same flower on a piece of Post It paper pad sticky edge. For the stamped en covered the flower and stamped three leaves. I then made another paper mask of the leaves and stamped the flower bud. For the bottom flower I also added a flower bud from Wonderland poppy stamp set to add to the elememt of three in the card layout. l liked the big flowers and I used my Copic markers to color and blend the ink for each petal. I use RV11 Pink, RV10 Pale Pink and YG03 Yellow Green. I stenciled the background using the Half tone circle stencil usimg Ranger distress ink Victorian Velvet and a foam pad on a handle to add soft inking. The sentiment was stamped with Versafine Clair Nocturne black ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. The die was a stitched oval from My Favorite Things and so was the stitched rectangle die for the stamped paper. I double wrapped gold cording from May Arts and used foam tape pieces to attached the tag on top of the gold cord.
Ink- Versafine Clair Nocture black ink and VersaFine onyx black ink
Paper- Neenah solar white card stock, pink paper and white card stock card
Supplies- Altenew washi tape, MISTI stamping platform, Sizzix die cutting maching, Scor Pal scoring tool, gold thread, 3M foam tape, 3M tape runner, Fiskars paper cutter, white glue, Nuvo glossy drops
Card 3- You Make My Life Blossom!/Technique- Create a Scene
For this card I used only one flower stamp and one sentiment stamp. I created the wreath as my scene. The flower double blossom stamp was from the Wonderland poppy set on Neenah solar white card stock. I stamped double flower eight times using VersaFine black ink. I fussy cut each stamped image. I colored and shaded using Copic markers- BV00 Mauve Shadow, BV31 Pale Lavender and BV01 Viola. I die cut a circle outline using the Essential Circle layered set. I began the wreath starting with the 12:00, then 3:00, 6:00 and 9:00 places using white glue. The remaining pieces I used foam tape. I die cut the purple dot paper using the scallop edge square die.The white card base was trimmed to a square. I die cut a circle and stamped the sentiment in the middle. I layered all of the pieces together to complete the card.
Paper- Neenah solar white card stock, purple Lasting Impression
Stencil- Altenew Half tone stencil
Supplies- MISTI stamping platform, Sizzix die cutting maching, Scor Pal scoring tool, 3M foam tape, 3M tape runner, Fiskars paper cutter, white glue, Essential Circles by Heather, VersaFine black ink
Card 4- Hello!/ Technique- Let It Shine!
This card was all about the shine. I stamped the flower image from the Charmed stamp set. twice with a small space in the middle. I used VersaMark watermark ink, static powder pouch to stamp the images on to watercolor paper. I used the MISTI stamping platform to get a good stamped image on to the watercolor paper. I colored/painted the flowers and leaves using Zig markers light green, light carmine, pink and yellow and painted and blended using a water barrel brush. I die cut the Fancy Hello die from gold metallic paper and twice from white paper. I layered the die cut paper gluing the gold paper on the top. I used the dot stencil and light green distress ink and foam pad and handle. I die cut a stitched rectangle from vellum paper. I assembled the card. I added tiny glue spots to the back of the word die to hide the glue.
Stamps and Supplies
Stamps- Altenew Charmed set
Dies- Altenew Fancy hello die, My Favorite Things stitched rectangle dies
Paper- card stock, water color paperk vellum, gold metallic paper
Inks-VersaMark water mark ink and Zig markers
Emossing Powder- Stampendous gold detail
Supplies- MISTI stamping platform, Sizzix die cutting maching, Scor Pal scoring tool, 3M foam tape, 3M tape runner, Fiskars paper cutter, white glue
Gift Box for Cards
I repurposed a flat cardboard gift box left over from a long ago holiday gift project. I cut thecchecker paper to fit the front of the box. I then stamped the same flower branch twice on the pattern paper using Versamark ink and white embossing powder.Then glued it to the front of the box. I then added the wide washi tape to the left side of the front of the box and wrapped it around the side of the box. I stamped a tag using another Altenew sentiment to pink paper and die cut that as well . I used gold twine from May Arts, wrapped twice around the box. I punched a hole in the tag and tied it with gold cording to the gold twine that was wrapped around the box. A perfect card set for a Girl Power gift.
Level 1 Challenge Project For a Special Guy CardsChallenge? or Challenge! I approached the Level 1 Guy Challenge as a way to apply all of the new techniques that I learned and practiced together in one final assignment. I was ready! Or was I? I had to take time to revisit the Altenew stamps and coordinating supplies that I had and to coordinate them with the stamping/card making materials that I in my supplies. Being resourceful and think creatviely was essential to completing the task. I found that taking the time to visit posts from other participants was really helpful and inspiring. I appreciated that resource that Erum shared in an email. I selected the Freeform Greenery stamp set for all of the cards and the packaging project. I have a limited supply of masculine stamp sets and I had not used this set and that added another layer to the challenge. Reflecting on the technique lessons I learned from Level 1, I had to decide what ‘homework’ I wanted to focus on. I chose- Let It Shine, Stencil Techniques and Masking Unleashed. I also applied other technqiues as those complimented my planning and creating each card and the final packaging task. I had a theme that coordinaed all of the pieces and that was color based. All of the pieces included blue and green ink colors and I used stamps from the Freeform Greenery stamp set as my primary stamp set, and some sentiments were from other Altenew stamp sets that I had as the Grenery set did not include sentiments. The techniques in each lesson added to my stamping/card making knowledge. Coordinating these two elements was critical to completing the challenge. The following descriptioins and photographs will explain my card making steps and the resources/materials that I used. A list of supplies and materials is included at the end of the post.
Nancy Souza Level One Challenge Let It Shine
Card 1- Life Is Better With Friends /Primary Technique- Let It Shine
I began with a piece of 3 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ piece of heavy weight white card stock and used my MISTI stamping platform to stamp the entire piece of paper. I positioned the stamps on the paper to cover as much of the paper as I could. I used an embossing anti static powder prior to stamping. I used Versamark ink to stamp the images, then added the Stampendous detail gold embossing powder and heat set the stamped images. I moved the paper and not the stamps and repeated the process. Then I used a foam applicator tool and Ranger Stormy Sky distress ink to cover the entire paper. I repeated the process to add more ink to create a dark background. I added some water splatters for some visual interest. I buffed the piece with a paper towel to remove some of the blue ink that was covering the gold embossed leaves. I die cut the inked/embossed paper using a stitched edge die from My Favorite Things. I die cut another piece from gold card stock and a larger white piece of card stock for a layered look. I stamped the sentiment using Versamark ink and gold embossed that as well. This was a My Favorite Things banner die cut. The small leaf accents were die cut from the same gold paper and are from the Altenew Leaf Cluster die set. This added some visual interest to the corners and helped to balance the card layout.
Nancy Souza Let It ShiineNancy Souza Let It ShineNancy Souza Level 1 Let It Shine
The layout for the second card was a horizontal half sheet of heavy weight white card stock, scored at 5 1/2″. Other paper was Canson watercolor paper cut to a 3 3/4″ x 5 1/2″ I continued to use the Altenew Freeform Greenery stamp set and selected only two stamps from the set. The single leaf bud and the five leaf stem. The technique for the card was creating a mask that would cover the primary stamped image to create an illusion of a background image for the five leaf branch. I stamped the single leaf twice on a 4″x 4″ squares of Post It paper close to the sticky edge. I then fussy cut the images. Then I adhered the single leaf stamp to Ranger clear acrylic grid block and inked the stamp using VersaFine Onyx black ink. The first image I stamped was the middle one and then two other images to the right and left for a total of three. I covered the leaf stamped images with the Post It masks and stamped four leaf stamp between the stamped images for a total of four new images. I removed the Post It masks and now I had created the illusion of images th were in the foreground and recessed. I have used this technique before and the stamps have simple outline shape, it was easy to create the Post It paper masks.
Hint- I orginally used Mask It sticky plastic masking paper and the stamped leaf stem was very thin, the mask was challenging to adhere to the paper. I went back to using Post It paper instead. That was successful!
Next, I used Zig water based markers in light green and slate blue and a water barrel paint brush to add color and shading to the stamped images- green for the single leaf and blue for the five leaf stem. I added paint splatters to add interest to the background using a puddle of blue Zig marker and a fan brush to tap in the splatters. I stamped the Altenew Stay Awesome word using black Versafine ink nd die cut a banner. I die cut the stamped piece using a stitched edge rectangle from My Favorite Things. I added the black and white stripe die cut banners from a paper pad from My Favorite Things. I tucked the top banners behind the stamped piece. My 3M tape runner was used for gluing the card together. I used my T square ruler to line up the final stripe banner to the bottom edge of the card
I used the element of three for the banners and the three primay single leaf images. Clean and simple stamped images and basic colors.
Dies- My Favorite Things stitched edge rectangle and banner die
Ink- VersaFine Onyx black ink, Ranger distress Stormy Sky blue ink
Markers- Zig water color markers- green and blue
Paper- Cason water color paper, white card stock, My Favorite Things black and white stripe paper pad
Tools- MISTI stamping platform, T square ruler, Fiskars cutting tool, Scor Pal scoring tool, Sizzix die cutting machine, white glue, 3M tape runner, Post It 4×4 note sticky paper pad, Fiskars scissosrs , fan brush
Card 3- Live In The Moment- Impressive Heat Embossing and Water coloring background
Nancy Souza Level 1 Group 17 Final Chalenge For A Special Guy
The third card in the For The Guy card set focused on heat embossing and water coloring resist painting. A fairly simple technique but with great results. I decided to revisit this technique as this stamp set had stamps with outline images instead of solid images and this would allow the painted background to fill in the spaces of the stamped and embossed images. I used mixed media paper pad and cut a quarter sheet of paper which allowed me to have more room to stamp. Then I could decide where I wanted to trim the paper for the card front. I used the MISTI stamping platform to plan out the position of the stamps to cover as much of the paper as possible. I used my embossing anti static powder pouch before stamping. I then stamped the leaves using Versmark watermark ink, heat embossed using Stampendous white embossing powder. After heat setting, I moved the paper in the MISTI stamping platform to finish stamping the rest of the paper. I repeated the same process as before.
HINT- stamping a second piece of paper as a backup was helpful as I did use the second piece!
Next was water coloring . I am a big fan of using Post It wide paper tape instead of other tape adhesives. It does the job, is reusable and is not super sticky and does not tear the paper when removing if from the paper. I taped both pieces of stamped paper to my glass work mat. A size 14 round brush, a small container for water, the same distress ink as before, Stormy Sky and Shabby Shutters. This would be my paint source. I swiped the ink on my glass work surface, lots of water and I created colored bands on the paper, alternating between green and blue. I removed the paper tape, dried it with my heat tool, turning the paper over to avoid warping of the paper. I wanted to create die cut stripes, so I used an large die cut banner from My Favorite Things that had a stitched edge. It was shorter than the paper I used but that was fine as I knew I was going to trim down the paper to fit the A2 card front. I used both pieces of the paper I stamped and painted in the process of gluing I had a few pieces I did not want to use. I followed the green and blue pattern and for the fourth strip I substituted a light green card stock piece as that was the piece I was going to add the sentiment banner. I started to use a teal piece of card stock for the solid paper, but it was too dark, then I used the light green piece instead. The I added them to a white piece of card stock and trim the painted paper and the background paper so it would be slightly smaller than the card front. I used my T square ruler to line up the sentiment before gluing to the card front. I liked that I had an odd number of strips (five which included the solid piece of green paper). The sentiment strip was from my collection of sentiments from Altenew. I wanted to continue the theme of friendship for the set. Another clean and simple guy friendship card.
Inks- Ranger distress inks Stormy Sky and Shabby Shutters, VersaFine onyx black ink, VersaMark water mark stamp pad
Embossing Powder- Stampendous white embossing powder
Dies- My Favorite Things banner dies
Paper- mixed media paper, card stock , green card stock
Tools- Sizzix die cutting machine, 3M tape runner, Size 14 round paint brush, Post It 1″ wide paper tape, Sizzix paper trimmer, Scor Pal score board , white glue, T square ruler
Card 4- Stay Awesome My Friend Primary Technique- Stenciling and Embossing Paste
Nancy Souza Embossing Paste
For the last card in the set I used a newer type of embossing paste. It is from The Crafter’s Workshop/ TCW and it is called Light and Fluffy. It has a lighter texture and dries quickly. After revisiting some of the Level One videos and planning for the last card, I thought that a card that had texture would be a good addition to the set and also use the color group of blue and green. The Altenew Halftone Stencil is one of the few Altenew stencils that I have and one that I reach for often in many of my cards and mixed media projects. I like the graduated dots and works for a variety of cards, including cards for the either gender. I used my glass craft mat to mix ink from the same two distress inks- Stormyn Sky and Shabby Shutters. I used a plastic palette knife to mix the ink colors with the fluffy embossing paste. I use white card stock and taped it to my glass work surface. I alternated colors and started in the left hand corner with the blue paste that I tinted and then gradually changed to the green tinted paste. The paste dried quickly and that was good. While that dried, I worked on the rest of the card pieces.
Hint- rinse off the stencil right after using, including the palette knife and the work surface. Keeps all of the tools ready to use the next time. Taking care of my tools, extends their crafting life.
Next, I used white card stock and stamped using VersFine Clair Nocturne black ink. I really like this line of inks. It can be used for direct to paper stamping and can also be used with clear embossing powder to heat set the stamped images. I have several of these ink pads. I then inked the stamped paper using the Shabby Shutters distress ink using the foam pad blending handle. I covered the paper and the inking created a nice contrast with the black stamped leaves. I used a new die set of stacked circles from Essential Circles by Heather for Essentials by Ellen. This set is unique as it also die cuts an outline circle that can be used with the the circles or alone. The set has 15 stacked circles so I can die cut lots of different combinations of circles. I used a piece of teal paper for the stitched edge circle as a contrast and continuing with the blue theme. I also used the same paper behind that had the embossing paste to tie together the colors. A stamped sentiment from my Altenew sentiments die cut using a mini banner die from My Favorite Things. I used double sided tape and foam tape for dimension to finish up the card. I like the texture and continuing visual interest of using circles and dots.
Inks- Ranger distress ink Stormy Sky, Shabby Shutters, VersaFine Onyx black ink, VersaFine Clair Nocturne black ink
Embossing Powder- clear embossing powder
Dies- My Favorite Things banner die, My Favorite Things stitched circle die, Essential Circles by Heather for Essentials by Ellen
Embossing Paste- TCW The Crafter’s Workshop Light and Flufy Modeling Paste 2 oz jar
Stencil- Altenew Halftone Stencil
Paper- white card stock, teal blue card stock
Tools- Sizzix die cutting machine, 3M tape runner, Post It 1″ wide paper tape, Sizzix paper trimmer, Scor Pal score board , white glue, T square ruler, handle with foam pad for ink blending, plastic palette knife
One More Project- The Guy Gift Box
I repurposed a flat paper box that I had saved from a long ago holiday craft project and discovered it in a drawer. I used coordinating green card stock and stamped the leaves and stems from the same stamp set that was used on the cards. This time I heat embossed the images using VersaFine Clair Nocturne black ink and clear embossing powder. Trimmed for the front of the card box. I use a left over stamped and ink piece of paper and circle die cut and a slightly larger circle die cut to create. tag. I wrapped twine from May Arts aroud the box and tied a bow. I punched a hole in the tag and tied that to the box as well.
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