Perky Penny Paper Arts

I am so excited to be sharing my Level 1 challenge for the Altenew Educator Certification Program.  I was asked to create a card for a teenage boy or girl, with a choice of several categories.  I chose an encouragement card for a teenage boy because I always love a good challenge.  The other requirement was to use 3 elements from the classes I have taken so far in Level 1.  I chose 3 elements with a very basic thought: many a teenage boy is not going to keep a card forever, so I wanted something simple, quick, and fun for me to make.  I reviewed Lesson 1 of the Clean & Simple Boutique class to zero in on this concept for my card. I decided on no dimension to keep it as simple as possible and a few elements to still have a fun card when I was done.

Besides an A2 white card base, this card only needed a 4" x 5 1/4" white panel to stencil on, a scrap for the sentiment, and the super cool Tim Holtz Idea-ology Metallic Kraft Stock (silver) cut to 4 1/8" x 5 3/8" an…

I had so much fun playing with the May 2018 Kind Heart Kit from Simon Says Stamp.  I created 8 pretty cards which I am so happy to share with you today.  I took advantage of the huge masking paper included with the kit and created masks for each of the images in the Everything Together stamp set (but not the sentiments).  You will see below how I used them. I have saved all of the masks and I'm storing them with the kit so that I can reuse them in the future.
I like to call Card 1 a one layer wonder.  I measured my sentiment and cut a piece of the masking paper just slightly larger.  I centered it in the center towards the top.  This gave me a 1/2" border on 3 sides and a slightly thicker border on the bottom.  Kind of like a Polaroid photo which I thought was kind of fun.  I then used my flower and leaf masks to determine placement and create a flower border around my masked rectangle and removed the masks when I was done.  Before I removed the rectangle, I took a Gold Signo…

As of this writing this kit is still available at www.heroarts.com while supplies last so if you would like the set hurry on over to purchase.
Have you ever needed a bunch of cards quickly?  I find in those situations a good cover die can go a long way.  There was a wonderful bonus in the April 2018 My Monthly Hero Kit, a full size cover die!  And this one is really special.  I created several sets of cards and a few singles--31 in total--in one day thanks to this timesaver, and I thought I would share them with you just in case you are ever in need of some quick cards for a gift or charity, to sell or just send out individually.  There are 9 different ways I used the die in total.  Most of these cards won't be decorated or have a sentiment yet.  That way I can customize them later, when I need them.

The products used in today's cards were minimal.  I used the kit, which included a huge, adorable stamp set; coordinating dies for many of the images; the aforementioned cover die…

My friends and I love to craft and we love playing with new products so every month I put together a kit and come up with 5 projects for everyone to create together.  The papers from this month's kit are so pretty I  thought it would be fun to share the kit and projects with you today.  I called the kit Isn’t She Lovely as it is filled with pretty things to make Mother’s Day or birthday cards for the special women or girls in your life.

Here is a YouTube Live I filmed constructing these cards.   Check it out and then read below for measurements and a shopping list. The paper I chose this month is the Hello line from Doodlebug Design.  I included three coordinating Doodle Pops; they're mini sets of multilayered embellishment stickers.  To stamp, I chose the awesome You Are My Most Favorite stamp from Neat and Tangled which would make a great card stamped alone on a card.  I included this set of adorable puffy stickers with great gold accents and some pink chevron washi tape that…

Had some fun ink blending with a stencil today and such a pretty one at that.  This card was inspired by the Easy Ink Blending Techniques class at Altenew Academy.  It was a great class, check it out if you want to learn some new tips and tricks :)  Several techniques are discussed, from creating your own matching card stock to faux watercoloring. Here is a quick video of the process I describe below.  I was able to create this card using the Leaf Burst Stencil from Altenew.  I blended Wild Honey Distress Ink in the center and Picked Raspberry Distress Ink on the outer leaves.  To take it up a notch, I turned the stencil (so that the tall leaves overlapped the short leaves) and blended the Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink onto the page.  I was careful to use sticky notes on the open areas around the square so I had this pretty pattern only on the page.
I created a matching pink border by inking the edge of a 6" square piece of white card stock with the Picked Raspberry Distress Ink.…

This is my next project in the Altenew Educators Certification Program.  It corresponds with Lesson 3 of the Irresistible Inking Techniques Class which focuses on stamp block inking which is a super easy, fun technique that creates a beautiful frame focal point on your cards.  It works wonderfully with one layer cards but today I decided to cut out and create some interest and dimension on my card.
I really wanted to play with the stunning Budding Thanks set that I have had for a while and had yet to open.  I am hooked.  Like all of Altenew's layering flower stamps, these are so fun to stamp.  I started by die cutting the flowers out first and then placing the die cut back into the negative space on my MISTI.  This made it a breeze to line up the stamps and create multiples in no time at all.  All of the colors I used are in the supplies list below.  I am going to keep the negative space for future use which will make it even easier in the future.

I plan on  die cutting a number …