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Creating Victorian Inspired Floral Cards with "The Drawing Room"

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These two Victorian-inspired cards were created with Altenew's The Drawing Room bundled kit. I really love this set. So many period tidbits to mix and create different tableaus. I am dying to make a card with the drawing room furniture. The card fronts were so complete in my mind,  I chose to keep one card blank and include an embossed sentiment on the inside of the other card.  The colorful, layered florals appear vibrant against the neutral backgrounds. I chose four different colors to stencil the flowers and four for the leaves. While this had potential to look like a paint store exploded, it all works because I kept the colors in the same color family and increased the saturation in fairly even levels. Big tip: you can let others do the work for you by purchasing color sets already assembled with these considerations in mind. If you do not have a pre-packaged color set, then you can will likely need to whip out your (two level) color wheel. Here's my supplies and the step...
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Drawing on vellum

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I took a class with Marika Rahtu, in Altenew's Academy,  called Beautiful Details. Oh, how I loved her drawings on vellum and her pencil and marker shading. From the six lessons in her class, I made over 12 flowers until I felt I had one to two to use for these two cards. Part of the problem was that I was substituting some of her supplies and that made a difference. But part of the issue was my inexperience with working with vellum. That comes with time. And as I like to say, I have more time than money, so no worries.  I was most happy with this wild western rose against a green frame. I ended up with several other roses drawn on vellum awaiting other projects. TIP: When I am setting out to make a card, I am now making several of the main design motifs so that after I finish one card, I have several design elements to use in other creative projects. It saves time to make several at the same time than only one design and card at a time. I save the extra design elements with t...
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Creating with an intentional use of colors

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  One of the most delightful aspects of card making is the choices you have in colors - both in inks as well as papers and embellishments. Indeed, my art is characterized by a bold use of colors.  I wanted to create a card being more intentional about my choices of how I use  color.  I started out wanting to create a veritable kaleidoscope. I chose a stylized flower bud from Altenew's Simple Flower set  and thought of filling my card's front with all different colors.  I set out to use almost all my Altenew inks I own. I stamped with select individual Altenew mini inks from all my mini-sets ( golden sunset , pocketful of sunshine , summer afternoon , red cosmos, lapis lazuli, sweet dreams , shades of purple and coffee break ). I also used a few of Ranger distress inks and select full size Altenew inks in fresh dye crimson , sweet leaf , and crisp ink parrot . Whew! I went crazy with color and loved it.  But a funny thing happened. After I had filled...
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Playing with alcohol markers

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I like to keep my eyes and hands busy playing with beautiful  colors and shapes, even when relaxing. So it is no surprise that I enjoy coloring. I found a love of coloring when I was in hospital. And I continued with it when I got home.  I bought an inexpensive medium set of alcohol markers and now you can often find me coloring pages in front of the tv. And that satisfied me. That was the extent to which I used my alcohol markers.  I had been hearing about alcohol inks and of course, I wanted to get my hands on few bottles of spray alcohol ink. But I told myself that I had many art supplies and was not sure I would get a lot of use with these sprays as they only work on non-porous surfaces; and I love working with papers or canvases. So I only explored my alcohol ink markers coloring adult coloring books. Then I took a class with Sara Naumann  called Magic Marker Techniques (offered through Altenew's Academy ). And I learned I was sitting on those alcohol markers wi...
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Creating with a twist: using incongruous elements together

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Have you ever liked fashion or art that was made up of elements you would not think "go together"? Have you ever heard someone describe something as "beautifully ugly"? I can not tell you why or how but sometimes you can go afoul of basic design principles and come out with something appealing. Well, I set out to create a visually pleasing card with elements that normally clash. I think I succeeded in designing a fun card that illustrates this point. I used non-analogous and non-complimentary dominant colors of purple and green and mixed vintage style florals with a modern graphic of thick stripes.  The sentiment set I used was perfect as it paired a lilting cursive "You" with a modern computer-ish block type. And the end result... I like it! it's quirky and fanciful. Supplies Altenew's Scalloped Ornaments layering stamp set. This set is not  available anymore but there are several other Altenew layering stamp sets to choose from. Altenew's  Y...
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Watercolor Flowers Made Easy: Painting with Ink Pads

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I love  working color onto surfaces in interesting ways.  So playing with watercolor in unconventional ways was fun. I made a couple cards using watercolors in loose and surprising ways. These techniques require you leave your perfectionism at the door. I will go over one of those methods here. Supplies Altenew's  Nostalgic Florals  stamp and die  set Altenew's Garden Gala stamps. At the time of this writing, the Garden Gala set is only sold to subscribers of  Craft Your Life membership plan . Subscribers got early access to this March 2026 set. It will not be available to non-subscribers until next month. Altenew's  metallic watercolor set Altenew's  solar white card stock Altenew's fresh dye inks in  azurite ,  ultraviolet ,  volcano lake  and fresh lemon Altenew's  crisp ink in parrot Altenew's  permanent black pigment ink Watercolor paper, preferably  hot press Watercolor brushes - I used a number 9 round tip...
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Using color to elicit a mood

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As a card designer, one of the most powerful ways to create mood is with color. With this card, I demonstrate how atmosphere transforms a design by recreating an artist’s work table filled with inspiration, quiet focus, and creative energy. A dramatic overhead light source and minimal surrounding light helped me achieve the emotional tone I wanted.  Using the Altenew Craft Your Life Kit: Illuminated Scenes, I show how to work with multi-layered stencils and coordinating dies to build a bold composition. Techniques for stencil layering, inking, die cutting, and thoughtful color choices elevate the card's design. Supplies Altenew's Craft Your Life Illuminated Scenes kit with coordinating stamps, dies, embossing folder and layering stencils Altenew's fresh dye ink in  warm sunshine ,  caramel toffee ,  olive ,  rocky shore ,  mocha ,  lavender fields  and  azurite Altenew's crisp ink in  parrot Altenew's pigment ink in  permanent bla...
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