Hero Arts has a great product that came out in November 2018 but I only recently discovered it. The Peek-a-Boo Die works with three different background stamps to cut out an A2 sized card front and score tons of doors where you can stamp or include little messages. This post is about the die and using it with the Mail Jumble background stamp to make a Thank you card. Please continue reading to find out more about this great product.

Tim Holtz and Ranger recently released new alcohol inks in a pearlized formulation. Some of these inks were included in the May Simon Says Stamp kit. Using these new inks and some inspiration from Michelle Short on the Hero Arts blog as well as Jenn Shurkus, I made some alcohol ink panels. I then used these ink panels to complete some cards I needed to celebrate the coming of babies. Please read on for how I put together these cards. 

In November of 2018, I embarked on a journey where I was not sure was going to lead; I became a participant in the Altenew Educator Certification Program. For the past 5 months I have been steadily working towards certification under the guidance and tutelage of Virginia Lu and Erum Tasneem who have been so gracious with their time and positive feedback. Throughout this journey, I have taken 25 classes at Altenew Academy, made 44 cards, one tag, four framed pieces of art and now taught one class. I feel proud of my accomplishments and happy to be able to share a love of crafty techniques to my friends and get them excited to try something new. Please read on for how the class went, the fun we had and what the students learned in the class. If you would like to read about how I prepared for the class, click here. Affiliate links are used in this post. If you choose to purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for your support.

Hello friends. I am participating in my first ever hop! On Instagram! I regularly post on Instagram and I’d love it if you join me there @sevenscrafts. The hop today has a $50 gift certificate to Scrapbook.com where I do regularly shop for my card making supplies because I like their prices, selection and fast shipping. If you are hopping along, you came from Anna Komenda @moriony and your next stop is Nicole Watt @pixelmavensretreat. For today I am sharing an adorable love you card made with the Monster Love stamp set from Concord & 9th along with other supplies that are all available at Scrapbook.com. Please read on for how I put together this cute card.

For the final challenge of the Altenew Educator Certification Program, I will be teaching a 2 hour card class full of techniques to 4-10 people. After the class, I will be blogging about how it went but I wanted to do a post before the class to discuss building an idea, setting up for a class and figuring how to break down ideas and make them accessible to others. Please read on for how I plan on teaching this class.

My kids do karate and are in black belt training which means they have extra equipment with which they train. I wanted their stuff to stand out from all the other kids so I got crafty and made some tags, bags and labels using my crafty supplies and some ingenuity. Read along to hear about what I made.

Since starting last November with the Altenew Educator Certification Program, I have made 42 cards, four pieces of home decor and one tag using supplies from Altenew. I’ve enjoyed this journey and every class I took through Altenew Academy. I am currently working my way through Level 3 Certification and this last class for the Altenew Educator Program was Sentiments with Impact. I looked forward to this class as cards need sentiments and having the right thing to say or the right way to say it sometimes gets lost behind the technique or the main image on the card. The instructor focused on using sentiments in different ways to make them the main focus on a card. I was intrigued by stacking sentiments and using different stamps that say the same thing to provide impact to the message. For today’s card I used small sentiments from four different Altenew stamp sets to create a background. Please continue reading to learn how I put together this card. For your convenience the materials I used are listed at the bottom of this post. Affiliate links are used at no cost to you. If you decide to purchase through these links I may receive a small commission thank you for your support.

I’ve been playing around with water color for a little less than a year. I like the look but have trouble with the messy aspect of it. In Altenew’s class, Watercoloring Basics and Beyond, the instructor discussed the importance of letting the paint mix and blend freely. The last lesson encouraged free hand watercoloring without using stamps. When I watercolor, I typically just color in a stamped image. Watercoloring without having the stamped image as a guide freaked me out. In the spirit of just trying this out and learning something new, I decided to go for it. The class is designed to showcase the Altenew Watercolor Pan set. I don’t have this watercolor set so I used ink from the Altenew Watercolor Brush Markers instead. These markers are vibrant with rich colors. Please read on for how I put together this card. Affiliate links are used in this post. If you decide to purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you your support.

Although cards are a 2-D art, I really try to add dimension to my cards. I typically achieve this through layering papers, die cuts and adding sequins. In the Altenew Academy class, One Layer Wonders, the instructor pushes the boundaries for how to achieve the look of dimension in only one layer. I took this challenge on and using the idea of drop shadows and lines to build a focal point throughout the image, I built a card using only one layer of paper. To be fair, I did do all the work on an A2 panel and then attached that panel to a card base. Please read on for how I was able to achieve dimension and depth using just one layer. 

Cards are essentially a 2-D medium. Adding texture without adding too much bulk is a papercrafter's dream. Altenew Academy class, A Touch of Texture helps in making this dream a reality. Within the class, the instructor discusses using background stamps, specialty paper or even scoring to achieve texture on a card. I was intrigued to try using both scoring and ink blending to achieve some different texture. Score lines are creases in a paper made by folding or using a bone folder. To see how I used just a bone folder, ink and paper to build texture on a card, please continue reading. Affiliate links are used within this post. If you choose to use these links to purchase products, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for your support.