Happy Anniversary to our dear friends at Altenew! It’s always a good day when we celebrate crafting partners doing well, and we extend our congratulations to them – and thanks for their partnership in bringing beautiful craft supplies to us all! You should have arrived here from Karen Brown’s blog. If not, the fun starts on the Altenew blog.
Giveaway Prizes
Over $1,400 in total prizes! Altenew is giving away a $70 gift certificate to 5 lucky winners and one Altenew Academy class to 15 lucky winners. There are also 19 awesome companies/crafty friends who are celebrating with us, and they are offering the following prizes:
• Altenew: 5 $70 Altenew gift certificates
• Jennifer McGuire Ink: $100 Altenew gift certificate
• Gina K. Designs: $100 gift certificate
• My Sweet Petunia: $100 gift certificate
• Spellbinders Paper Arts: $100 gift certificate
• CiLi in Papers: €75 gift certificate
• Lawn Fawn: $75 gift certificate
• Online Card Classes: 3 online class spots
• Altenew Academy: 15 online class spots
• Auzz Trinklets N Krafts: $50 gift certificate
• Concord & 9th: $50 gift certificate
• Hero Arts: $50 gift certificate
• My Little Attic: $50 gift certificate
• Scrapbook.com: $50 certificate
• Simon Says Stamp: $50 gift certificate
• Pinkfresh Studio: $50 gift certificate
• Bumbleberry Papercrafts: £25 gift certificate
• Waffle Flower: 1 prize bundle valued at $32
• Butterfly Reflections Ink: $25 gift certificate
• Ellen Hutson LLC: $25 gift certificate
• Scrapbook & Cards Today: 1 copy of Scrapbook & Cards Today Spring 2021 issue
Be sure to leave comments by 4/18/2021 for a chance to win one of 41 prizes! To make the hop more exciting, start your comment with “Hi from (city or country where you’re from)!” 41 winners will be chosen at random from the comments left on any of the blogs listed above and will be announced on the Altenew Card Blog on 4/24/2021.
I’m Sandy Allnock, and I’m excited to get out pencils, brushes, and paints to make a card….especially when it’s a floral when I have an excuse to use my favorite color yellow!
I chose to use Book Engravings – yes it’s a floral stamp set! It’s a layering stamp set, but I’ll use it without the layers and color in my own; you can also get dies and stencils that coordinate. But the teaching moment here is about when you might consider using watercolor pencils vs watercolor paints. Because, well, sometimes one is easier for a particular job than the other!
I stamped the flowers in VersaFine Onyx Black ink pad —- it’s waterproof and gives me a great crisp outline. My favorite watercolor paper for cards is Arches Cold Press; not so much texture to make stamping hard, but enough to keep the watercolor moving nicely. The card was finished off with a layer of Ebony cardstock popped on dimensional adhesive on a Cherry Red card base.
Watercolor pencils are often easier for small areas, for shading, and for moments when you get nervous about all that watercolor splashing around! You can take your time coloring slowly, nothing will bleed or blend yet – then just pick up that brush once you’ve taken a deep breath…or maybe a little glass of vino for courage!
Backgrounds are a great place to use watercolors – large open areas can be covered quickly and smoothly with color and a brush. I like to recommend using a brush larger than you think you need just because it keeps you loose! But in this case, I wanted the round 8 so I could get in between the flowers.
You can check out my swatching of the pencils and watercolors on my blog or YouTube!
Why paint a background at all, you ask? Well how about those of us who go outside the lines!?! Yep that’s why I first started painting and coloring backgrounds. It hides my oopses!
I hope this project has given you a little bit of courage to try some watercolor, and maybe when to try pencils to keep things under control!
Blog Hop
Now go visit the rest of the blog hop – there’s a ton of inspiration out there waiting for you! Next on the hop is Seeka! In case you get lost along the way, here’s the complete hop listing for today:
Altenew Blog
Jennifer McGuire
Jaycee Gaspar
My Sweet Petunia
Agnieszka Malyszek
Kristina Werner
Tenia Nelson
Paige Evans
Reiko Tsuchida
Auzz Trinklets N Krafts
Karen Brown
Ellen Hutson LLC –> You are here!
Seeka
Katrina Howe
280 Comments
Hi from South Carolina! So excited for this giveaway! Thank you for participating!
Hi from Brigham City Utah, such beautiful colors!
Hi from Washington! I enjoyed your video and your card is beautiful.
Hello from Lake Tahoe, NV! Sandy, gorgeous card! Thank you for the inspiration!
Hi from TX! I love that the card looks like flowers in the morning glow of the first sun.
Your work is always gorgeous!
Hi from Wisconsin! I love this card. 🙂
WOW! As always Sandy you have created a master piece! Love the color vibrancy of this card😍 thanks for the inspiration!
Hello from Bristol Virginia! Love your use of beautiful bold colors! You are such an inspiration!
Hi from Tel Aviv, Israel! Gorgeous card!!
Hi from Maryland! What a great hop and prizes!
Hi from Indiana, your watercolor is gorgeous!
Hello from Arizona. Sandy your watercoloring is sooo beautiful. So inspirational. I have always loved the cards you have created, especially Bethlehem Lights!
Hello from Central Wisconsin! LOVE your floral card! I have an Altenew pan set, but another brand of pencils but don’t use them often. I like the way you used them an am going to dig mine out and give it a try.
Hello from Billings, Montana. Awesome card, thank you very much for sharing when pencils can work better than pan. This will make things much easier for me. Congrats Altenew!
Hi from Ohio! I love all of the videos I’ve seen of yours, Sandi. I like the idea of covering all the ‘oopsies’ with coloring the background!!
Beautiful!!!! Thank you for the tips! You are amazing!
Hi from Chicagoland! Beautiful card – love your pencil and watercoloring! Thanks for sharing!
Hello from Bangladesh. Lovely card, it’s so vibrant!
Your watercolor demo is so instructive
Hey there from Durham NC! I am constantly amazed at how supportive the stamping community is of eachother’s businesses! What a way to celebrate what stamping and mailing cards is all about – spreading happiness and positivity to lift people up!
Hello from Sacramento, CA. Simply brilliant! My goodness you are talented and that is one amazing cards. I really appreciated the info on when to use water colors vs. water color pencils. Thanks for showcasing this amazing Altenew Stamp!
Hello from Alberta! Just a beautiful design.
Hi from Texas! Love your card! Thanks for the video!
Hello from Brisbane, Australia. Sandy, thanks for the reminder of the some of the differences between water colour pencils and paints. Your finished card looks like it’s been drenched in sunshine.
Hi from Australia! Wow! I always love to check out your stunning creations, Sandy! This panel is so striking with the vibrant colours!! Thanks for the inspiration! Take care! 🙂
Hi from Michigan, really like the colors of your card. Great inspiration.
Hi from India.
I love the yellow and red combo, so beautiful.
Hello from California. WHOA!!! That card is spectacular! Of course, I have all the Altenew coloring things EXCEPT the pencils. Sigh. But I will try with my 24 pan set.
Hi from Colorado! Beautiful cards!
Hi from Maryland. I love watching/listening to your videos. You always have such good advice. Thanks so much for sharing and being a part of Altenew’s Anniversary celebration.
Hi from San Diego. Love your card with all the orange very pretty
How pretty, Sandy!
Hi from Raleigh NC! Love your water coloring
Your card is so stunning! Looks like a lot of love and hard work went into it!! Yellow is one of my faves too. Thanks for sharing your tips
Hi from the UK – loads to take from thus crd. Great stuff 🙂
Hi from Switzerland!Beautiful design. Love your card!
Stunning watercoloring!!
Hello from Idaho and Happy Anniversary Altenew! Such a beautiful watercolored card! I enjoyed watching your process and thank you for being a part of the Hop!
Hello from Michigan, USA! Absolutely gorgeous and I love these colors, it reminds me of a sofa we had growing up!! TFS!!!!!!
HI from Germany. Beauty-full. And thanks for the tips, Sandy. Thanks for supporting Altenew, Ellen.
Hello from southern Indiana. WOW… stunning card with vibrant, rich colors. Just wow….. ❤
Hello from Florida. I love your color palette! Made me think of fall (although I’m ready for spring!!) Thank you for sharing and Happy Birthday Altenew.
Beautiful coloring – as always! Congratz Altenew for 7 years of awesomeness.
Hi from Maryland! Such a lovely vibrant card!
Hi from Beaver, UT! Congratulations to Altenew on their 7th anniversary! Your card is gorgeous! I’ve used both watercolors & watercolor pencils, but it doesn’t look like yours! Beautiful! Thanks for sharing!
Hi from Hastings, MI. Your colors are so beautiful on this card. Thanks for sharing.
Such beautiful cards as always.
Hi from the UK 🙂
This card is so pretty!
Thank you for the inspiration.
Huge hugs
Amy xx
Hi from Washington DC! Beautiful cards!
Hi from Chicagoland! I have to say that I love to watercolor (I’m signed up for a bunch of your classes because I love how thorough you are – but I am distracted by creating so have yet to dive in and get started.) I appreciate your insight into why watercolor pencils are helpful and I am also a yellow-loving creator and I adore Altenew’s Summer Afternoon because that warm yellow makes me smile. Anyway, thank you so much for all the inspiration and tips that you share! I hope you have a Summer Afternoon kind of day (unless you’re more of a Pocket of Sunshine gal in which case have a day like that!)