Altenew Celebrating Parents Card Drive 2023 Blog Hop + Giveaway ($200 in Total Prizes!)

Hello! Welcome back to my blog. I am part of Altenew's Celebrating Parents Card Drive Hop. Altenew is hosting this card drive from 2/28/2023 to 4/17/2023. This card drive aims to honor and celebrate the fantastic parents and parental figures in our lives. Altenew will also donate $1 with every order from this collection (from 2/28/2023 until 5/14/2023) to the Food Bank of Central New York to support seniors in need. Details on how to participate in this drive is linked above. There is also a chance to win a $15 gift card to the Altenew store which is all detailed in the Altenew Card Drive blog.

I lost my parents in less than a year. My Amang (father in Filipino) last September 2021, and my Inang (mother in Filipino) last August 2022. It still hurts each time I face this realization but I find comfort in knowing that they are together and believing that a part of them is who I am right now.

The cards I created are also made in fulfillment of the AECP 2 courses. I will explain this later on in the blog.

My first card is a masculine themed card. I did an ombre embossing technique on the star which is one of the classes in the AECP 2 course on Impressive Heat Embossing. The star is from the Altenew Halftone Star stamp set. The trick to get a flawless ombre embossing technique is to use a stamping tool like the Misti which is very helpful with repeated stamping.

I added stitching to create a frame for the star. The stitching holes were created using the Altenew String Art Rectangle die set. The sentiment is from the same stamp set but I added the word 'rock' which is from the Altenew Label Love stamp set.

The next two cards are feminine floral cards. I am using the Altenew Sixties Sunshine bundle which includes a stencil set and a 3D embossing folder.

I traced the stencil on a cream cardstock using a brown gel pen, a technique inspired by the AECP Magical Marker Techniques course. The class is about drawing with stencils. To fill the background, I traced some of the flowers using a gold glitter pen. I created a holding paper for the cardstock, sort of like a jig, to temporarily adhere the cardstock I will be drawing on. I taped the stencil to this holding paper so it will not shift. Since I was using a gel pen, I traced the images slowly. 

The embossing folder pattern matches the pattern created by the stencil. I lined up the pattern of the embossing folder with the doodled pattern, then ran this through the embossing folder. I added color to the flowers by blending ink on the printed side of the embossing folder, then ran this through the die cut machine. I repeated this process for every color. Just make sure you are lining the right embossed image to the embossing of the folder. My embossing and inking are not perfect but I like it this way since I am going for an organic look. 

I am so amazed by this embossing folder that I created another card using an orange cardstock. I tried swiping a white dye ink to the embossing folder to lighten the color of the recessed areas of the card panel. I should have used a white pigment ink instead of a dye ink for a more dramatic effect. Something to think about later on. I blended a brown dye ink on the centers of the flowers for a bit of shading. I flicked Tim Holtz Distress Oxide sprays on the panel. I added stitching to the panel to tie up with the stitched sentiment.

For the sentiments, I heat embossed this on kraft cardstock. The sentiment is from Altenew Wild Hibiscus stamp set. I added stitching holes to frame the sentiment using the same die I used on the masculine card. I adhered this to the center of the embossed panels with foam tape. 

I trimmed a bit off the sides of these embossed panels. I adhered this to a vertical top folding A2 kraft note card. 

I hope you join Altenew's Card Drive. Let us show love to these parents through the power of cardmaking. Have a blessed, brilliant and creative day!

Maria Giselle B.

Giveaway Prizes

$200 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 2 lucky winners and a $20 gift certificate to 5 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 03/20/2023 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 7 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 03/21/2023.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

6/2024: Altenew decided to change its affiliate program starting this month. Below is my affiliate link to the website. I don't think I can directly link the products I used with this new program. Please feel free to do a product search. I will update as I figure this out. The good thing about this new affiliate program is that I get to earn on each Altenew product you purchase and not only on the product/s I used on this project. As before, there will be no additional cost to you if you make a purchase. It is just a way to help a fellow crafter sustain her love for crafting. While in the Altenew blog, don't forget to check out their new release for this month. Thank you for your support!

https://altenew.com/6358517

I am sharing this creation at:

Inspired By Challenge

Simon Says Stamp IG Challenge