Creating with a twist: using incongruous elements together

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 You Matter die set

Altenew solar white card stock

Altenew's fresh dye ink in Wisteria,  Ultraviolet and Sweet leaf

• Altenew's crisp ink in Parrot
• Altenew's Permanent Black pigment ink
• Altenew's scissors
• Altenew's double sided tape
• Altenew's glue and foam tape
• Altenew's large blending brush
• Tweezer
• Acrylic paint in light coral
• Flat paint brush
• Washi tape
• Die cutting machine

Optional: 

• Altenew's Stampwheel 2.0
• Glitter pens and markers

1. Cut and fold an A2 (4.25"X5.5") card and set aside. Cut two 4"X5.25" pieces of white card stock.
2. Lay washi tape stripes across one of your 4"X5.25" card stock pieces. Peel off every other stripe of washi tape.
   
   
   
3. Paint the exposed card stock stripes with your acrylic paint and set aside to dry.
4. Stamp your floral designs.
5. Use the stencils to layer colors with ink. You can leave it here or you can add highlights with glitter pens and/or markers. 
6. Fussy-cut (hand cut) your stamped images and set aside.
7. On a separate piece of card stock use your blending brushes to create swaths of color big enough for your chosen sentiment. I created an ombre effect on the bigger segment (the "You"). 
   
   
   
8. With washi tape, secure your dies to the colored swathes of color. Die cut the sentiments out.
9. Assemble your card.
   
   
   Use double sided tape to center the now dry striped piece of card stock onto the front of your folded blank card. Use foam tape for the floral design and main word: "You". Use double sided tape for the smaller text.

Relax, and enjoy your creation. Who will you send this card to?

Watercolor Flowers Made Easy: Painting with Ink Pads

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 for depositing color and a larger round tip brush for brushing water onto surface before painting.

• Embossing ink and powder
• Cornstarch 
• Heat tool
• Water spritzer
• Sequins
• Optional: Stampwheel 2.0

1. Cut and score an A2 card out of your white card stock and set aside.
2. Brush a fine layer of cornstarch over a piece of watercolor paper. This will help your embossing powder stick to only the inked image.
3. Apply your stamp onto this prepared watercolor paper, using permanent black pigment ink.  Then stamp over the same image with embossing ink. I like to use a base coat of black ink to create a crisp outline in case my black embossing powder does not adhere perfectly. 
4. 
   Sprinkle your embossing powder over your inked image and tap off excess. If you have stray embossing powder, use a clean, dry paintbrush to brush the powder away. 
5. Use your heat tool to emboss the image.
6. The embossed lines serve as a waterproof ridge that keeps the water inside the enclosed area. Use your brush to lay a film of clean water over the image you are going to paint. Change your water often so as not to contaminate your color.
7. Select the colors you want to use from your available water-based ink pads. Uncap your ink pads and lay them face down onto a water resistant surface. You can use a craft mat, a palette or a glass mat as shown here. And rub the ink onto the surface. Deposit about three good smooshes of ink. (Smooshes is my very technical art term.)
8. 
   
   Spritz the ink with water until it beads up and you have a puddle of color. Be careful to leave the paint highly pigmented. Do not lighten the color with more water until you want a soft glaze of color. 
9. Moisten the tip of your brush and then use it to pick up color.
10. Dab color onto the already wet surface in an area you want to see paint flow. (I.E. the inner petals, close to the center.) The paint will flow outward from the initial deposit of color. 
11. Allow each layer of color to dry before applying more watercolor. You can use your heating tool, but be careful to not burn the paper by holding it too long over one area.
12. After you are satisfied with the initial painting, use metallic watercolor to accent select areas. It gives a lovely sheen and catches light beautifully.
    
    
    
13. Once dry, use the coordinating die to cut your flower out. Also, with the colored card stock, cut out the 4"X5.25" piece you will glue to front of the A2 card.   
    
    
    
14.  Glue the colored card stock onto the surface of your card. Leave a small, uniform white border showing. 
15. Stamp a piece of white card stock with the sentiment and use the coordinating die to cut it out. 
16. Assemble the front of your card. Your vibrant blossom is the star, but your sentiment can balance the composition. 
17. Give your card an extra touch by glueing a few sequins to your 
    
    
    
    
    
    Here is another card in which I used same watercolor technique.

What I love about this type of watercolor painting is that the brush work is loose and surprises are welcome. As card makers, we measure with care, cut exact, imprint precisely... we are meticulous. So these dabs of color that disperse in wonderful patterns are so fun. Happy accidents. 

 

Cardmaking Challenge Part #1 — Building Skills through AECP Certification Program

Note: I am writing a separate post on the process of creating these cards. This post looks at the design of the project as a whole.

My teacher in the Altenew Educator Card Making (AECP) Program, Erum Tasneem, issued me a challenge one third of the way through the program. The challenge consists of designing two sets of cards drawing on similar motifs and theme, but making one for men and the other for women. 

I need to incorporate and explain three technical components I learned so far. These his and hers sets were to be packaged creatively and I should incorporate the use of at least one recycled item in the packaging. Everything was to be hand made.

If you ask most people what a his and hers set means, the majority would come up with similar characteristics: durable vs delicate, plain vs frilly, bold vs soft, flowery vs architectural, you get the idea.

 Now, I know exactly what my teacher meant. On a personal level, I lean towards traditional feminine aesthetics. But I want to make a disclaimer here. I approached this challenge as designing two sets of cards: one that is more spare and stoic and the other more flowery and embellished. I saw them as opposite styles that would make the sets an interesting study in contrasts. Not so much a gender difference.

Now-a-days, many people choose a non-binary identity, and for them, designating certain kinds of attributes as unique to men and women make them feel invisible.  As gender norms continue changing in our society, I think designers will need to reflect those changes in their designs. 

The common attributes of blue for boys and pink for girls and all that comes with that aesthetic is changing; and the design industry will need to reflect that to stay relevant. But, for simplicity sake here, I will refer to the two sets of cards in the rest of this post as his and hers. 

I used a bee concept for my cards and the theme for them is "encouragement". The five cards shown above are my hers set and the five shown below are my men's set. I think the differences are more apparent when viewing the cards side by side. Here are a couple of the twin cards. 

The two Shine cards demonstrate my three chosen components excellently. I used inking techniques, die cutting and bling as my three components. 

Both cards used the Altenew Gradient Stripes Cover Die for the peek-a-boo peek into the designs behind. I think this is a fun aspect. It draws the viewer into the composition. They have to really look to see what is underneath. I also used the Altenew Shine Die Set for the sentiment on both. (This is a versatile die set; and it is on 50% clearance right now!)

The inking techniques were different between the two. The male card used an ombre inking that pulled colors from honey with Altenew's Summer Afternoon fresh dye mini ink set.

The woman's card used layered stencils from the Altenew Honeycomb Haven Craft Your Life Project. This is the set I used in all cards in these sets.

Lastly, the bling on the women's card is much more noticeable in real life than the selected sequins on the male card but they both really added the final touch to these presentations. Both cards used metallic cardstock for the sentiment. The women's card used rhinestones on the top and bottom edges while the men's card placed individual Altenew matte sequins down the card vertically. (I like this bottle of sequins because it is rare to find matte sequins but also it contains different sizes and styles in same copper color. AND, let me hear you say it : 'it is on clearance right now!')

In another set of cards, I chose to create two cards that did not have any text  sentiment. One can easily be added inside.

I am disappointed to see that

the subtlety of these surfaces are not as apparent in photographs but I provide a couple of detail photos here. The women's card in this set is tied with one other card as my favorite in the whole project. The embossed texture provides a rich background that is appealing but does not 'take over'. In the detail to the right, I hope you can feel the delicate complexity of this composition. Using rhinestone chains on the top and bottom really made this card bling-y. It reflects light in a major way.

I used individual elements from the Honeycomb Haven set die. I die cut with Altenew's white cardstock and hand colored the pieces with alcohol markers to be able to blend colors (acrylic markers are not blendable, they are opaque). I enjoyed creating my own composition from the cut out pieces, not simply duplicating the arrangement on the cover die. 

The men's card continues the no-text composition style with a richly stamped background using the stencil layering set from Honeycomb Haven.

Whereas the women's card had no one focal point but invited a slow perusal over the whole surface, the men's card focus is the honey pot and bees. In my decision to not use flowers in a central way for the men's card, I chose a background that is predominantly vine and bees. But I do reference flowers with two small flower outlines that I kept non-descript with a single wash of pale blue and no details. 

These next two cards show the biggest difference between the two approaches. The men's card is much less embellished. And though I added shine with a metallic gold border, I chose a thick plain band for the border. The men's card draws much of it's visual interest from the embossed background. The stamped honey jar in both cards used an ombre stamping technique and it was fun blending many colors.

 I did something different with the women's card's foliage and flowers. I wanted to add a subtle texture to the coloring. I sprayed the die cuts with a pigmented spray (Lindy's Gang). I was able to shade with different colors and the result is a soft wash of sprayed inks. 

I love the effect. That sole difference- spraying ink instead of stamping- created a velvety feel to the foliage. You can really see the difference between the green of these leaves and the green in the "You" in the cards below. This is my other card tied for my favorite of the project.

The last two sets of cards show similar differences. With the "Bee-lieve" pair, I made the women's card more ornate with a delicate floral background. She also got some shine with the metallic gold frame around the sentiment. I did insert a flower into the men's "Bee-lieve" card but I kept it non-descript with a muted color.

Both of the "You are not alone" cards have an embossed hive pattern. The women's card has a stamped floral background over the embossed surface. The result is a busy, intricate design. The men's card uses the same layout but with a  a lighter hand and the bees were hand watercolored smaller.

For the packaging, I recycled fancy tissue paper from previous year's holiday gifts. One is solid gold and I used that for the men's package. The women's package used a white tissue with gold metallic circles. I decoupaged two card boxes with these tissues and applied a couple layers of matte medium. Once dry, I used metallic gold acrylic paint and a sea sponge to dab gold color all over the boxes. This created a nice texture and unified the two boxes more. 

I used a die cut of a Christmas tree to create an ornament to decorate the boxes further, since it is now holiday time. I used several layers of holiday napkins from previous Christmas'. I decoupaged the tree ornament and once dry, I sponged gold acrylic paint all over lightly. I hung them with metallic thread. Finally, I made a wax seal in gold to top the boxes and hang the ornament. 

This challenge was daunting. But once I broke the tasks into small chunks, I began to enjoy the process. It was good practice comparing and contrasting aesthetics.

I liked creating a cohesive whole while flaunting subtle differences. I got to experiment with design elements and how they effect a composition. I learned a matte sequin still embellishes but in a quieter way than it's shiny sequin counterpart. I saw how spraying pigment inks can create a different texture than layering stencils with stamped ink. And most importantly, I learned to look beyond the compositions displayed on the kits and to think outside the box to come up with my own unique designs.

As far as labeling certain aesthetics as masculine and feminine, I still remain somewhat rebellious. I prefer to think of cards being appealing to a certain type of person, not so much the sex of the person. (My  boyfriend would love a beautiful Altenew floral card! ) But, I do get it. I am accommodating and can certainly deliver a card set that adheres to traditional masculine or feminine aesthetics. 

 

What are your thoughts about designing differently for men and women? 

Using inkpads for watercolor: a sweet nostalgic floral card

 

A favorite past time for adults to relax with is coloring. In this tutorial, I will show you how to use your stamping ink pad to paint watercolor on your cards. And it is just like coloring in that you can easily brush on washes of color with three simple tools - a paintbrush, a paper towel and water. If you would like to see the accompanying video on how to achieve this look, click here. 

Supplies

• Altenew's Nostalgic Florals stamp  and die set
• White and light orange card stock
• Altenew's Satin Gold Sequins
• Altenew's Summer Afternoon fresh dye ink mini set
• Altenew's Coffee Break fresh dye ink mini set
• Altenew's Fresh Dye Ink in Grass Field 
  
  
  
• Altenew's Crisp Inks in Parrot
• Altenew's gluetape
• Liquid glue
• Altenew's watercolor brush
• Paper towels
• Water spritzer

1. Stamp a 4"X5.25" card stock rectangle with your flower image and sentiment.
2. Cut a 4.25"X5.5" yellow card stockout rectangle.
3. Glue the yellow card stock to the front of your A2 size folded white blank card.
4. On a slick paint proof surface (like most craft mats or palette), smudge the ink face of your stamping ink onto your "palette" to deposit ink. 
5. Moisten your brush tip and the deposited ink with your water spritzer.
6. Use your brush to mop up the ink and start painting. Play around with different quantities of paint on your brush tip and pressure to get different results. Also, the more you spray water onto your ink, the more subtle the shade.
7. Use the corresponding die for your main image and cut that out of card stock. You will be using this cut out as a mask, so you will want to save it with your stamp and die set. If you need to know what a card maker's "mask" is, check out my previous blog post here. 
8. Place your mask over your main image. Since you will not be blending ink over the mask's edges, you can simply lay the mask over your image. 
9. Wet the brush bristles and pick up a healthy amount of the water spritzed ink from your palette.
10. Hold your brush horizontally over your image and tap the barrel of your brush so that ink drops fall onto the card front.

Dad y Tio Hugo, large watercolor, early 2000's

 

Easy card : clean and simple

 

My first class in the Clean & Simple (CAS) style of card making was basic. I admit, that I had to hold myself back while creating this card. Basically, I stamped the images and colored in two spots that I felt balanced the composition and injected a little pizazz. It is pretty straight forward. 

Supplies

• Altenew Many Thanks stamp set
• Altenew Healthcare Heroes stamp set
• Altenew fresh dye ink in crimson
• Altenew pigment ink in permanent black
• Staedtler watercolor pencil no. 124
• Hangfan alcohol marker in carmine
• No. 6 round brush

One item that I did not list in the supplies is Altenew Stampwheel 2.0. I did not list it because it is absolutely not necessary. But I am writing about it because it makes your life so much easier if you're going to be making cards regularly. I love it! If you are into making cards, put it on your gift wish list now. A birthday or celebration anytime soon?

This detail shows how thorough my black ink stamped. Without the Stampwheel 2.0, I would probably not have such crisp lines without breaks. The Stampwheel 2.0 is a tool to help you line up your stamps so that they always land in the exact same spot; this way you can keep stamping until your image is perfectly rendered. It has many other benefits, such as keeping your stencils in place and creating circular patterns or wreaths. I plan on doing a video about the Stampwheel. 

Keep on crafting.

CAS card using repetitive pattern

This card is a far cry from the multilayered roses in a Victorian garden card I made two posts ago. Granted, a skeletal human spine and brain are not usual thank you card images. Does it clarify things if I tell you this is a thank you card that I plan on giving my neurosurgeon(s) at my next appointment.? Thought so.

Within this last year, I had two serious spinal neurosurgeries. They were both myelopathy emergencies and I was quite ill by the time I was taken to surgery. The good news is that I have regained abilities with my hands for the most part and my doctors arrested the spinal compression that was causing me to lose my balance and that would eventually paralyze, then kill me. 

I am still trying to walk and hope the end of the year will see me getting around without a wheelchair or walker. But even if I stay as I am now, I am so very, very grateful to the neurosurgery department of Cleveland Clinic Hospital in Florida for saving my life and giving me back much of my abilities. 

I will see my main spinal neurosurgeon later this month for my nine month follow up. I am tickled to be able to give him this card. Hopefully, he will smile as he sees my colorful renditions of spines and brains; remembering all the macabre images he had to look at in the course of my treatment. It is especially poignant for me to give him this card as I remember so clearly lying on a gurney and asking him to "save my hands". I told him I was an artist and that I would rather live with a wheelchair than live without being able to create with my hands. And that is what he did. I am sure the significance of a handmade card will not be lost on him.

Supplies:

• White card stock
• Altenew Green Meadows gradient cardstock set 3X6"
• Altenew Permanent Black pigment ink
• Rubber stamps of anatomy
• Staedtler watercolor pencils
• Altenew Label Love stamps
  
  
  

1.Select one (one is best, but in my case I really wanted both images) image that you will stamp across the front of your card in a pleasing pattern.

2. Play with adding colorful accents with your chosen paint medium. I chose watercolor.

3. Cut a strip of accent color card stock to serve as a banner across the front.

4. Stamp your sentiment on the strip.

5. Glue the cardstock strip down.

This simple design makes a statement despite its humble methods. Patterning an image all over the front of the card which holds meaning for the receiver, makes this a very personal type of card. Best of all, it is quick and easy!