Severnista

It’s time to get those wheels rolling for new card designs in 2025. An excellent way to start is with Altenew’s January Inspiration Challenge.

I decided to try some big flower designs using the color inspiration as a guide. This Sunshine Flowers kit from Altenew has all the goodies and parts, offering full versatility. The set includes the stamps, die cuts, stencils, embossing folder and project guide.

I started by simply heat embossing one of the large flower stamps with Altenew’s Antique Gold embossing powder onto hot pressed water color paper. I made several stamped images to work with, five in all.

Next, I water colored the images using the following Tim Holtz Distress Inks: Tattered Rose, Aged Mahogany and Shabby Shutters.

The easiest way to ‘watercolor’ with Distress Ink is to gently rub the pad surface on a mat surface or glass. Next you spritz with water and use either a watercolor paint pen or paint brush to pick up your color and paint.

The technique is both simple and relaxing.

I die cut two flowers and affixed them onto an ivory card base. Then I added a little gold splatter and pink-ish Sequins to embellish the card above.

The card below has the flower die cut and fixed on top of the card base that has been dry embossed with the folder from the set. I added splatter which looks a bit out of control but also full of flare. I was trying a new technique of splattering the embossing medium right on the card base then adding the gold embossing powder and heating.

This last card has added background images including a heat embossed stamp from the Whimsy Stamps set Stitches and a border from Catherine Pooler Designs cut from metallic paper. The die cut watercolor flower is affixed on top.

How will you challenge yourself this year? What motivates you? What techniques are you hoping to improve upon or try?