Hello, crafty friends! Welcome to Altenew’s Crafty Friends blog hop. If you are coming from the fabulous Jennifer McGuire’s blog, you are in the right place.
To celebrate friendships in this special paper crafting community, I created a floral watercolor card inspired by Debby Hughes’s beautiful watercolor card.
She taught me how to watercolor florals when we met at the craft retreat last April. I still need to brush up on my watercoloring skills, but at least I don’t feel afraid of trying watercolors any more thanks to my sweet friend, Debby.
Before I started, I wanted to talk a little bit more about my crafty friends. I have been so lucky to make some amazing friendships through our mutual love of paper crafting.
It’s been my pleasure to get to know them better and inspire by their amazing talents. I’m so thankful to be part this paper crafting community full of kind, supportive, and talented people.
These photos were taken when I went to the craft retreat in Cincinnati, OH last April. We had a fantastic group of fun, sweet ladies in the ballroom crafting, chatting, and laughing for five days. I’m traveling again to Cincinnati this week to see my friends, of course, I’ll have a blast at the retreat with my most lovely, supportive, and amazing crafty friends.
For today’s project, I combined three flower stamp sets from Altenew to build my own floral arrangement: Build-A-Flower Coral Charm, Remember This, and Beautiful Day. I started by stamping the images with Versafine Onyx Black Ink on a piece of Strathmore watercolor paper.
FYI, I used the masking technique to create a dimension in my card while stamping. Then I watercolored my images with ZIG Clean Color Real Brush Pens.
It’s hard to see from the photo, but I watercolored in gray along the bouquet of my flowers to add some interest in my background. I added some white dots on the center of each flower using a white gel pen to add interest to my card.
It took me about three hours to complete my watercolor card. But I realized that how much I love watercoloring no matter how excellent I am at waterocloring.
I combined two sentiment stamps from Altenew Beautiful Inside stamp set to add a message insdie of my card.
To finish off my card, I stamped a fun sentiment and envelope image from Altenew Crafty Friends stamp set on the back of my card.
I also made a matching envelope by heat embossing the sentiment from Altenew Crafty Friends stamp set with Altenew Antique Gold embossing powder on a flap of my green envelope.
Video
I made a video tutorial to show you how to create a watercolor card. You can watch it above or on my YouTube channel.
Altenew Special Offer
Enjoy FREE U.S. shipping with code CRAFTY or $5 OFF international shipping with code FRIENDS at checkout now through October 19th at 11:59 pm EDT. Shop HERE>> www.altenew.com
Blog Hop Prizes
Altenew is giving away a $100 Altenew prize pack to FIVE lucky winners. There are also 13 awesome companies/magazines who are offering the following prizes:
- Jennifer McGuire Ink: 1 prize pack of three Altenew stamp sets
- Online Card Classes: 3 class spots
- Create and Craft TV: £50 gift certificate
- My Sweet Petunia: Mini MISTI
- Ellen Hutson LLC: $30 gift certificate
- Pretty Pink Posh: $30 gift certificate
- Simon Says Stamp: $30 gift certificate
- Chameleon Pens: 1 pack of 5 Chameleon pens
- Tombow USA: 1 pack of 10 dual brush pens
- WOW! Embossing Powder: $25 gift certificate
- Butterfly Reflections Ink: $25 gift certificate
- Freckled Fawn: $20 gift certificate
- Papercraft Magazines: One copy of each of the latest issues of four magazines
- Scrapbook & Cards Today Magazine: 1-year subscription
Be sure to leave comments by Friday, October 27th, 2017 at 11:59 PM EDT for a chance to win! 21 WINNERS will be chosen at random from the comments left on the participating blogs in the Blog Hop Day 1 and will be announced on the Altenew Card Blog and Altenew Scrapbook Blog on October 28th, 2017.
Another Giveaway
And there is more! I have a $20 Altenew gift certificate to give away. Leave a comment below, sharing a story about your crafty friends. I will announce one lucky winner on Thursday, October 26th. Good luck!
Blog Hop
It is now time to head on over to the fantastic Keeway Tsao’s blog to see what creation she has to inspire you all. Thanks so much for stopping by today. Happy hopping!
Supplies
I have listed the supplies I used below. I participate in several affiliate programs including Simon Says Stamp(SSS), Ellen Hutson(EH) and Altenew(AN). It means I get a small commission at no additional cost to you when products are purchased through links I share here. Thank you for your support.
 Altenew Build-A-Flower Coral Charm Shop at: SSS | AN | EH |
 Altenew Remember This Stamp Set Shop at: SSS | AN | EH |
 Altenew Beautiful Day Stamp Set Shop at: SSS | AN | EH |
 Altenew Crafty Friends Stamp Set Shop at: SSS | AN | EH |
 Altenew Beautiful Inside Stamp Set Shop at: SSS | AN | EH |
 ZIG Clean Color Real Brush 36 Set Shop at: SSS | AZ | EH |
 EK Success Cutter Bee Scissors Shop at: SSS | EH |
 Tim Holtz Tonic Paper Trimmer Shop at: SSS | AZ | EH |
 Wagner Embossing Heat Tool Shop at: SSS | HA | EH |
 Versamark Watermark Ink Shop at: SSS | HA | EH |
 EK Success Craft Tweezers Shop at: SSS | EH |
 Dahle Self-Healing Cutting Mat 18×12 Shop at: SSS | EH |
 Be Creative Double Sided Tape Shop at: SSS | EH |
 Versafine Onyx Black Ink Shop at: SSS | EH |
 3M Post It Notes Shop at: SSS | AZ |
 Neenah Solar White Cardstock 80LB Shop at: SSS | EH |
 Uni-Ball White Gel Pen Shop at: SSS | PS | EH |
 Tombow Removable Adhesive Shop at: SSS |
 Original MISTI Stamping Tool Shop at: SSS | AZ | EH |
 Altenew Antique Gold Embossing Powder Shop at: SSS | AN | EH |
 Strathmore watercolor paper Shop at: SSS | EH |
 Tim Holtz Water Brush Shop at: SSS | EH |
 Altenew Acrylic Block Set Shop at: AN |
 Memento Tuxedo Black Ink Shop at: SSS | EH |
Lori Smart
I love all these smiling faces, and your beautiful card!
Oct . 24 . 2017Hanna Persson
Beautiful card! My favorite crafty friend i my mom. I have an illness that makes it hard for me to sit. But my mom helps me and finds new ways for me to craft!
Oct . 24 . 2017Sara Wright
Stunning cards and beautiful people!
Oct . 24 . 2017E.Boggs
I love the card,flowers are beautiful.My crafty friends from church meet monthly to make cards.We put them in office and people take them and leave donations that go to food pantry and hot meals..We also have someone who orders cards for special holidays.I learn a lot as we have very talented friends in group.
Oct . 24 . 2017Jaycee
Beautiful card! Thank you so much for the video on how to use the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens. I have trouble blending them and I think your demo helped:)
Oct . 24 . 2017Cassandra C Cauble
Your card is just beautiful, but I just LOVE all the friendship pictures! 🙂
Oct . 24 . 2017Romaine
Thank you for sharing your talent, the card came out beautiful.
Oct . 24 . 2017Monika Toth
Amazing Card May! 🙂
Oct . 24 . 2017Theresa Truax
Your card is stunning! Thank You for sharing your talent.
Oct . 23 . 2017Teresa Godines
Your stamping and coloring of the flowers are beautiful. I think I have now covered one of my friends to do crafting with me and I can’t wait to sped time teaching her how to make beautiful projects.
Oct . 23 . 2017Debs
Crafty friends are forever friends…love your card.
Oct . 23 . 2017Ronda Jenkins
Wow! Your bouquet is beautiful. I have not tried water coloring yet, but think I will try soon! Thanks for sharing!
Oct . 23 . 2017Stacey Kowbel
Beautiful card! I met a great group of crafty friends at a card class. The teacher is fantastic and we now regularly get together at her house to craft away an evening.
Oct . 23 . 2017Janet Trapp
So stunningly gorgeous!!!!
Oct . 23 . 2017Loving this hop and Altenew products! 😍💓💞
lisascreativeniche
This is beautiful! How awesome to have so many crafty friends!
Oct . 23 . 2017Christi L Steinbeck
WOW what a gorgeous card! Your watercoloring is just STUNNING! My crafty friends story is I have one really good friend that lives over 4 hours away I met online . When we want to scrap together we video chat and it seems like we are right in the same room together. Sometimes we talk all the time while doing this and others we dont talk at all until we need advice from the other. It is just knowing the other is right there if and when we need an opinion or a question to the other. This past weekend I drove the 4 hours to just see her and scrap all weekend with her. What a fun time we had together.
Oct . 23 . 2017sindhu
Beautiful card…Meeting crafty friends are so much fun and happy that I met few..
Oct . 22 . 2017dawnnz
totally amazing May. A beautiful card. Hope you enjoyed the retreat.
Oct . 22 . 2017Nandini Karmarkar
Very beautiful card. And thanks for the detailed video. I started card making when my kids were young as a way of having a little ‘me’ time. Over the years I have made so many friends through this hobby that I feel really happy and blessed! Recently I put up a query on one of the crafter groups on FB. There were so many helpful suggestions and I felt really good that people are taking time out to help a fellow crafter.
Oct . 22 . 2017Gilda (McStamper)
Your cards are so gorgeous, amazing coloring. Most of my crafty friends are online. I enjoy doing card trades on a few groups and love getting to know others in this way.
Oct . 22 . 2017curlesuecards
These are beautiful cards! I don’t have many crafty friends, but I have a co-worker that has recently taken up card making. It’s great to have someone that I can share my projects with (my kids get tired of looking at my cards). My co-worker and I have different styles, but we still share techniques and tips. I’m trying to save her some of the money and time I wasted learning.
Oct . 22 . 2017Laura Holm
May, your floral bouquet card is amazing! You have a wonderful eye for color and your flowers look so real! Thank you for sharing your technique with us!
Oct . 22 . 2017Danielle Dietz
Beautiful color combination!
Oct . 22 . 2017Kathy McCluskey
This card is gorgeous! Those flowers look so beautiful!. Thank you so much for the video tutorial explaining how you made the card! It is always so helpful to see how it was done!
Oct . 22 . 2017Sheri K
Gorgeous water colored card! I don’t have many “in person” crafting friends, but I have many long distance and internet crafty friends. This group of friends inspire me each day with their lovely projects.
Oct . 22 . 2017