Mother's Day card - Altenew Educator Certification Program - All About Layering 1

Hi Everyone,

Today's post is a very happy and special one - it's my first post and project share for the AECP (Altenew Educator Certification Program). I am so honoured and happy to be able to participate in this fun initiative, and I hope you will enjoy this "journey" with me! 

My first project was inspired by the "All about layering 1" course (which, by the way, is FREE, so feel free to check it out yourself), where Nicole shares her inspiration using many of the gorgeous layering stamp sets by Altenew. 

Many of her projects truly inspired me, and my creation uses a few of her suggestions and techniques: second generation stamping (the flowers in the background), heat embossing the outlines of the image, fussy cutting and popping up the focal images, using smaller images from the stamp set for the background, and - finally - using the outlined images without the "proper" stamped layers, and free-hand colouring them instead. 

I wanted to make a Mother's Day card for my purple-loving mum, and opted for the "Beautiful day" stamp set, which was my very first set I got from Altenew, and is still my favourite of all the ones I own. 

I had loads of fun making this card, and I am really happy with how my colouring of the flowers with ZIGs turned out - for a moment, I felt like a true watercolour artist, they're so easy to use! 

I was considering adding sequins or other type of bling, or at least some glitter/shimmer, but in the end decided not to - the design is already quite busy, and I wanted to make sure that the main focus is on the three coloured flowers :o)

I hope you like my first project, stay tuned for more in the coming weeks!

I am entering the card into the following challenges:

Altenew April Inspiration Challenge

SSS Monday Challenge - Flower Power

SSS Wednesday Challenge - Anything goes

Work it Wednesday - For the Mom

I will be taking a short break from blogging and crafting for the next few weeks, as I am going away, but I will be back mid-May! 

Take care,

Mirella

SUPPLY LIST (please see affiliate disclaimer & essential supplies info here):

Grey ink - from my stash

Thank you card with Najlepsi Par

Hi Everyone,

Happy Sunday! Looks like spring has come to Helsinki for a few days, and it decided to leave already - it's freezing again today, and I lost all hope that it will be warm again this year! Ugh... Please, please, send us some sunshine if you live in a warmer and sunnier part of the world!

Today, I am sharing with you a circular thank you card that I made for my daughter's playschool teacher. I really wanted to use my recently acquired dies by Najlepsi Par. When the card was finished, I realised that I also needed something to wrap our little gift in...and I got totally giddy when I found the box you can see in the photos - it looks nearly like a matching set! :o)

Quite pleased with the end result. A simple but cheerful and feminine card, I think!?

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

SSS Wednesday Challenge - Sparkle and shine (the tulips have metallic accents on them)

Have a great week ahead,

Mirella

SUPPLY LIST (please see affiliate disclaimer & essential supplies info here):

Tulip dies & circular dies - Najlepsi Par

Distress Oxide inks on kraft cardstock

Hi Everyone,

I hope I don't jinx it, but it looks like spring has finally decided to come to Helsinki! Woohoo! You cannot imagine how nice it is to start changing clothes to lighter ones, and to walk around in gorgeous sunshine...

To celebrate, I decided to make a floral card :o) This time, it's a card for a guy (I am really struggling with these, as you know!), so I opted for testing out my Distress Oxide inks on some kraft cardstock. I still went with quite cheerful and (some might say) feminine colours, but I think the fact that it's on a kraft base, and that there aren't any glittery embellishments classifies this card as an OK one for a guy!

I wanted to play along with the current "Where Creativity meets C9" challenge, hence I looked through my Concord and 9th stash, and decided to finally try out one of the turnabout stamps. Boy, these are so much fun, now I want more of them! 

And here's the card, what do you think, is it masculine enough?

I am entering the card into the following challenges:

Where creativity meets C9 - Spring

Have a great weekend,

Mirella

SUPPLY LIST (please see affiliate disclaimer & essential supplies info here):

White gesso (for the splatters)