Altenew Celebrating Parents Card Drive Blog Hop (+GIVEAWAYS!)

Good morning!  I am so honored and excited to be participating in the Celebrating Parents Card Drive Blog Hop for Altenew!  The Celebrating Parents Card Drive collects cards to be sent to the elderly who live in nursing homes or shelters and reminds them that they are loved, honored, and never forgotten.  The card drive runs from March 27th to May 3rd, 2017 so you still have plenty of time to send in some cards!  You can head here to find more information on the Card Drive!  You should have arrived from Sveta’s blog and you’ll find your next stop at the bottom of my post!

In addition, Altenew has chosen four stamp sets that are great for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day projects.  20% of the profits from these stamp sets sold until Father’s Day, June 18th, 2017, will be donated to the Food Bank of Central New York to support seniors in need.

And, Altenew is also running a special offer on the Best Dad stamp set and die set (that I used on one of my cards below!) from April 19th to April 22nd, 2017!

Whew, lots of info to share!  Giveaway details are at the bottom of my post but now it’s time for my cards! 🙂

The Best Dad set is full of lots of masculine images but I focused on that coffee mug and that great sentiment!  I’m pretty sure every kid bought their dad that mug or a very similar mug sometime during their childhood.  I know my dad still has one from me so I thought it would be the perfect image for my card!  I started by stamping it once in the center of my card panel with black ink.  Then I masked it and stamped 3 mugs on either side with grey ink, moving my mask each time.  Next I stamped the letters from Filled Alpha to resemble the top of a calendar.  I colored my center mug with copic markers and then added a layer of glossy accents to the coffee.  Then I stamped the sentiment from Best Dad onto red cardstock and adhered it to my card with foam mounting tape.  Finally I trimmed the panel and adhered it to a red card base.

Clean and simple and perfect for my dad!  Now for my mom…I went kinda the total opposite of CAS! 😉

But I’m really happy with how it turned out! 🙂 I started by stamping the floral arrangement from Extra Special with versamark onto watercolor paper and heat-embossed it with white embossing powder.  Next I colored it with zig markers.  I used Peach Pink, Sugared Almond Pink, Dark Grey, and Yellow for the flowers and blended it out with a damp paintbrush.  I added a little spectrum noir clear sparkle to the pink flowers.  I also stamped the florals onto vellum twice and heat-embossed them with silver sparkle embossing powder.  Then I used the coordinating die to die-cut the florals and set them aside while I worked on the rest of the card.

Next I scribbled the Peach Pink and Dark Grey zig markers onto my craft mat and used a flat brush to do a soft watercolor wash.  I blended the two colors together using lots of clean water.  I let it dry completely and then flicked on black paint and water.  The water created lighter splotches on the background which created a nice contrast from the black paint.  Once it was totally dry I adhered the vellum florals to the background.  Then I stamped the sentiment from Extra Special onto black cardstock, trimmed it down, and adhered it over the vellum.  I used foam mounting tape to adhere the watercolor flowers and then finished the card with a sprinkling of silver and sparkling clear sequins!  I think my mom and dad will really like their cards! 😉

If this is your first time visiting my blog, I hope you’ll come back again.  You can subscribe to my blog via the sidebar on the right and find me on Youtube or Instagram!  Thanks so much for visiting and enjoy the hop!