Creating Victorian Inspired Floral Cards with "The Drawing Room"

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 steps I used to create them. 

Supplies

• Altenew's The Drawing Room Craft Your Life kit
• Altenew's solar white cardstock
• Altenew's black cardstock
• Altenew's pigment ink Permanent Black 
  
• Altenew's crisp ink in Parrot
• Altenew's fresh dye ink in Bamboo, Olive, Just Green, Evergreen
• Altenew's mini cube ink sets in Chasing Shadows and Enchanted Garden
• Altenew's Instant Dimension Foam Tape 
  
  
  
• Altenew's blending brushes
• Double sided tape
• Die cutting machine
• Embossing powder
• Heat tool 

Optional: 

• Anti-static powder (I use corn starch)
• Washi tape

1. Cut and fold an A2 card (4.25"X5.5"), cut a piece of 4"x5.25" black cardstock and a piece of 3.75"X5" white cardstock. Set side.
2. On a separate piece of white cardstock, use the kit's layering guide to stencil the flowers and leaves. I find it helpful to use a blending brush for each color. If you plan on continuing making cards, it is a good idea to invest in several. It's not a good idea to use a damp brush (recently cleaned) to stamp a new color. It will majorly slow you down if you need to wash and dry brushes between colors. 
   
3. Using your die cutting machine, cut out the flowers with their leaves. I use low tack tape (washi tape) to keep my die in place while cutting.
4. Using the desired stencil on your 3.75"X5" piece of white cardstock, create your neutral background with your gray tones. I originally made the stenciled background gradient in color by using an ombre effect with my inking. This is seen in my supplies photo above. It looked unfinished, so I later changed it to the solid color background seen in final card. This kit provides many options to use for backgrounds; ranging from stamps, stencils and an embossing folder.
5. Assemble the pieces of the card. I used flat double sided tape to center glue the black cardstock over the card front. And I tried two different layering approaches with my two smaller pieces of white cardstock. On one, I centered the white panel over the black. And on the other I nestled the smaller white cardstock to the lower left, leaving more black edge around the top and right sides. This is evident in the supplies photo. However, again, I changed my mind and centered it. I like asymmetry and planned on adhering my flower at an edge with her leaves partially extending beyond the card. I felt that was enough asymmetry. 
   
   
   
6. Using the foam tape, adhere the flower onto the card. I placed it lower right, with a tiny bit of overhang.
7. I chose to include an embossed sentiment inside one of the cards. True to form, Altenew kept the fonts and the wording in keeping with the Victorian feel. I love their attention to details.

I hope you can see that even though one might have a step by step process in mind when creating, you are always tweaking and changing course. Even re-doing entire cards to get the desired one. Some of your best creations will be the result of happy accidents. Have fun with your artistry!

Stamping four layer roses on an embossed background

I am not one inclined to decorate with very ornate flowers, filigree or lace. Delicate flower buds in oh-so-quaint settings are not in my usual repetoire of designs. But the second class of layering in my AECP card making course lends itself to this kind of Victorian-ish look. So, voila, here is my card featuring four layer roses nestled in a garden themed frame.

I think the card is pure delicacy and I did not feel any sentiment needed to be on the front of the card. Actually, the embossed frame of flowers, leaves and butterflies does not leave much room for any sentiment. It is just a dainty note to drop a line to someone special.

For this card, you will need approximately four shades of inks in the red family, a couple shades of greens and an embossing folder. You will also do well to get a stamp with matching die set. 

Supplies:

• Altenew Sweet Rose Bouquet stamp and die set
• Altenew Parrot crisp ink, or any light spring green
• Altenew Grass Field crisp ink (this actually a four ink set for clearance price)
• Altenew Red Cosmos mini ink cube set
• Lindy's magical in Flickering Lights
• Lindys magical in Rosewood Rouge
• Die cutting machine (I got mine at Walmart but I really like Altenew's for same price)
• white cardstock (80lbs - 120lb)
• embossing folder (do not remember where I got this one)
• Foam adhesive stickers
• Crafting tweezers
• Glue
• palette
• small round paintbrush
• paper sensitive low tack masking tape

If I do not provide a link to a supply, it is probably because it came from one of those cheap Chinese businesses like Temu. I am not linking them as I know many people have bad feelings about doing business with them. I mainly go for what is affordable. Unfortunately, because of Donald Trump's recent tariffs, orders from TEMU are now not as cheap.

Also, if you want to try Lindy's magical's, you will need to get some instruction on how to use them. They are powder, but when mixed with water, make very potent inks. Using them in different ways, produces vastly different effects. That is one of the allures of the product. Lindy's YouTube offers brief tutorials on their magicals, such as this 2 minute explanation.

Steps:

1. Start with the lightest color first when stamping your four layers of the roses. Then increase in darkness with each subsequent layer.

2. Stamp the two layers of green for the greenery onto your blank facade of your card.

3. Use the corresponding dies to cut out the roses.

4. Using your craft tweezers, afix the cut out roses to the stems you stamped on card

5. Use a pale, shimmery color on your embossed frame. It should not overwhelm the main design. I painted on Lindy's Flickering Lights magical with a paint brush and after that coat dried, I brushed on a VERY diluted Rosewood Rouge magical. 

This detail shows you how the embossing looks up close. It provides a wonderful texture. I used a very pale yellow, with shimmer, to catch light as the card is handled.

I won't post all my mistakes; but know that there were several attempts. Either I did not layer my inks in the proper order or I did not line up stamps correctly. I also painted one of the embossed frames in pale reds, greens, yellows; but it proved to be way too busy. This card is simple sweetness. Since the line work is so busy, the colors and methods needed to be spare.