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:
Nandini Karmarkar - You are here!
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!
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
