Dandelion Seeds Card Co.

Hello, and welcome to part one of my Altenew Educator Level 1 Final Challenge.  Throughout the ten courses in Level 1, I have practiced techniques in inking, embossing, stamp layering, die cutting, stenciling, and all other things related to card making -- all in preparation for this challenge.  Here's the gist: Create two card sets, one masculine and one feminine, with 4-6 cards per set Cards can be any theme/occasion, but should be a cohesive set Use any 3 components (course/skills) developed during Level 1 coursework Use one recycled element on one of the sets or in the packaging Course Components: If you know me (and obviously you don't), you know I tend to overdo, overthink, over-everything. So, when you ask me to incorporate three course components, the likelihood my brain can stop thinking at three  is slim. Now, I could mention just three, and you'd be none the wiser, but how over -everything is that? And what's the point of copious note taking if you don't

It's Monday! And that means I'm sharing another color matching inspiration! To be honest, I was a little nervous about this one. I do like green and purple together, as in olive and dusty purple, which this color story is certainly not. But, if the colors show up in fashion, someone must be willing to wear them, so they can't be that bad. Lime + Lavender it is. Today's colors were inspired by this photo by @nocturne via @notjustalabel and shared by @colorstoriesbystacia on Instagram. This is where I've been getting all my color inspiration at the moment although I'm hoping to get outside my craft room at some point and find my own real life inspiration somewhere.  The Challenge: I decided to use the Spellbinders Stitched Card Front on white this time, which presented the challenge of incorporating all the colors into the design with thread! To accomplish this, I simply picked a single element to stitch in each of the seven colors, and that just happened to

Hello! Today I am sharing a card I made for the Technique Throwback Thursday challenge over on the Share Handmade Kindness Facebook page. On the first Thursday of every month, they post one of Jennifer McGuire's older videos and then encourage crafters to try out that technique and share their cards. These techniques are always great, of course, but one thing I really like about this concept is that it gives me homework  that takes a bit of the decision-making off my plate.  For July 2023, the technique is stenciled stamping. Here is Jennifer's original video . And here's what I made: The Flowers: For this card, I used the Pinkfresh Studio Simple Blossoms stamp set and coordinating dies. It is one of my all-time favorite products, but unfortunately, it seems like it might be retired.  Using Gina K Light Carnation ink, I stamped the largest three flowers onto white card stock. Then, I lightly dusted the edges of each stamp with Medium Carnation and stamped again. This adds

THIS has got to be one of the most special cards I've ever created! This one's all about the background backstory. The Inspiration: When your favorite baby is an artist, you'll create a gallery of sorts to display his best pieces. But when your favorite baby creates art of the circular variety, you'll need to think outside the box. Or, in this case, outside the frame. When my daughter offered me this fingerpainted watery masterpiece, I almost  didn't take it because it didn't seem framable. But the blues and greens were so pretty, I couldn't resist. After a few weeks of shuffling it around on my kitchen counter, I was inspired to create this shaker card. The Card Base: To create a circle-shaped card base, I cut two plain white circles using the largest Hero Arts Nesting Infinity Circle die. I scored one of these 1/4" from the edge. On this one, I stamped a sentiment because I knew I didn't want a sentiment on the front of the shaker card. I added g