Demystifying layered stamps

Welcome! I’m so thankful that you’re here.

Today I’m excited to share my first post as a participant in the Altenew Education Certification Program (AECP)! I’ve decided to go through the courses in the “order” they’re listed so that means first up is All About Layering Class 1 presented by Nicole Picadura. What a fun class! Nicole takes the time to really give some pointers to simplify the alignment of the lovely layering stamps.

I'm updating and combining a couple of blog posts. The first part of this post provides detail on one of the cards that I've made after taking the All About Layering Class 1 and then I'll share tools I used while creating several more.

The class inspired me to pull out several of the Altenew layering stamps in my stash that I’ve struggled with and I ended up having a lot of fun with them. One of the great “freedoms” from the class is to let go and not try to always make it perfect. You’ll likely notice that on some of the flowers but I like it that way.

The first card I’m sharing is created using the Garden Treasure Stamp & Die set and, while I almost always use my MISTI stamp tool, today I used acrylic blocks.

I started the card by very lightly coloring in a background on my panel of 3 ¾” x 5” Neenah Solar White 80 lb cardstock using the Narrow Brick stencil and Crisp Dye Ink in Peach Perfect.

I knew that I wanted to cluster the flowers together so that meant creating at least one mask to allow for the dimension of overlap. After I determined how I wanted them to group, I decided to create a mask for both sizes of flowers so I stamped them on Gina K Masking Magic and die cut them out. Once I had the masks I stamped the floral images using Altenew Crisp Dye Inks - for the large center flower I used Jet Black, Frosty Pink, and Coral Berry; for the small flowers I used Jet Black, Peach Perfect, and Autumn Blaze; for the leaves I used Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades, and Evergreen.

Once I finished, I decided to use a colored pencil in my stash to add some orange to the large flower to bring it together. I stamped the sentiment from the Sentiments Strips stamp set and embossed with white embossing powder, then I cut it using the Features Sentiments Die Set. Using some fun foam for dimension, I added the sentiment to the card panel.

To finish it off, I used an ink blending tool to add Peach Perfect around the edge of a 4”x 5 1/4” piece of Neenah Solar White cardstock, adhered some fun foam on the back of the top card panel for additional dimension and then adhered the layers to a top folding base of 4 ¼” x 5 ½” Neenah Solar White 110 lb cardstock.

The next cards were also made while going through the class! I'd love to know which is your favorite so please let me know in the comments.

Life in Bloom

Altenew Dahlia Blossoms Stamp & Die set

Inks:

Top flower - Catherine Pooler Ink: Party Dress, Tiara

Bottom flower - Catherine Pooler Ink: Tiki Torch, Limoncello, Catching Rays

Leaves - Memento Ink: Cottage Ivy, New Sprout, Bamboo Leaves

Sentiment - Versafine Clair Ink: Nocturne

Yellow sequins

Nuvo Drops - Party Pink

Garden Hello

Altenew Golden Garden Stamp & Die set

Inks:

Flower - Altenew Mixed Media Ink: Jet Black, Coral Berry

Leaves & "berries" - Altenew Mixed Media Ink: Forest Glades, Evergreen

Altenew Fancy Hello die with clear embossing on black cardstock

Treasure Hello

Altenew Garden Treasure Stamp & Die set

Altenew Rows of Squares 3D Embossing folder

Altenew Label Love Stamp set

Inks:

Small flower - Altenew Mixed Media Ink: Frosty Pink, Coral Berry

Leaves - Altenew Mixed Media Ink: Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades, Evergreen

Large flower - Memento Ink: Lulu Lavender, Sweet Plum, Grape Jelly

Little flowers & sentiment - Altenew Mixed Media Ink: Jet Black

Imagine Sheer Shimmer Craft Spray - Sparkle

Paradise

Altenew Bird of Paradise Stamp & Die

Altenew Hibiscus Garden 3D Die set

Inks

Flower - Catherine Pooler Inks - Limoncello

- Distress Inks - Orange Marmalade

- Altenew Crisp Dye Inks - Autumn Blaze

Stem - Distress Inks - Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio

- Memento Inks - Bamboo Leaves, Rosebud

Flower "center" - Memento Inks - Lulu Lavender

- Distress Inks - Wilted Violet

Leaves - I pulled some of my Gelli acrylic paint prints out and cut them using the Hibiscus Garden die set

Background - Distress Oxide - Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Mermaid Lagoon

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Just a couple of small disclaimers: All of the products featured have been purchased with my own funds. Additionally, the blog contains some affiliate links which enables me to earn a small commission - at no cost to you - when you use one of them to make a purchase. Thank you for your support!