This month's inspiration photo
My project inspired by this month's inspiration photo (above)
I was so inspired by the colors from this month's inspiration photo! I don't have a cornucopia, but thanks to my amazing crafty friends, I recently received the Altenew Radiant Blossoms Build A Garden Set and it has the cutest basket! It's a good size too, I can't wait to use this element with other sets and creations!! So, I wasn't sure when I started this project exactly where it would go, so I started with the basket (which, as you can see from my finished photo, YOU CAN'T SEE IT ANYWAYS because I got carried away with the flowers and pumpkins lol). Oh well, it was fun to do. Below are the steps I used to make the basket look as realistic as I could.
I stamped the image in Toasted Mauve ink on craft cardstock to start with a good base. Pro tip: stamping on colored cardstock gives a great base to inking if you are inking something in similar colors.
I used the Pink Sand ink pad to rub across the basket, to give it a little "wicker" texture. The Pink Sand ink is just a bit darker than the craft cardstock.
The set comes with stencils, so, for the basket stencil I used Toasted Mauve again and a mini blending brush to add shadows around the basket.
I added depth to the shadows by lightly applying Redwood ink around the shadows.
I added Redwood ink shadows on the inside of the basket as well- The stencil is amazing to allow you to add these details!!
I edged the basked using Altenew Artist Marker in Espresso
Then I finished the rim using Altenew Artist Marker in Sunkissed.
Came out super cute!!
Next was the flower cluster that comes in the set. Since I don't have a lot of fruits and things as elements, I decided to fill the basket up first with the large flower cluster. This I also stamped on colored cardstock.
Pro Tip: When stamping and ink blending on colored cardstock, you definitely need to do some test blending with your chosen colors to see how they will come out. I was going for a vintage tone for the flower cluster.
Pro Tip: I used a mustard color cardstock as the base of this flower cluster. Instead of choosing green inks for the leaves, I used tones of blues because blue and yellow make green. Yes, you can use greens, but working with the colored cardstock to blend a completely new tone of "green" with the blue inks kept the depth of the leaves in that toned-down vintage look.
Now I had a sense of the tone this project was going, so I used a muted light green cardstock as a 5 x 7 card base. From there I antiqued it in vintage tones and gold.
Using the big blending brush I edged the card base face in Mocha ink. This large brush smooths out edge blending like a dream! No brush marks!
I used the Regal Beauty mask and stencil set from Altenew and a mini blending brush with the Mocha ink to add tone on tone details. Pro Tip: varying pressure with the brush gives the depth to the stenciling.
For some true vintage style I dabbed Altenew Enchanted Gold Pigment Ink. I used a micro mini blending brush to keep the gold on the stenciled areas. I also rad the gold ink pad around the edge of the card face.(Whew!! Yes, lol, this card took a while to put together...lots of juicy steps, lots of different techniques.... but it was so much fun to get lost in the process of building this card!)
Next comes to fun part!! (I know, it's all the fun part lol) THE FILLER ELEMENTS!!!
I used pumpkin stamps and dies from an old, retired set from my stash. To keep with the vintage, washed out tone of the rest of the card, I stamped the pumpkins in coordinating ink on colored cardstock.
Next came the super fun part of picking washed out, jewel toned card stock to cut out the leaves and fillers. I had some leaf die-cuts left over from a previous project, so I added those as well. I used the leaf dies from the Altenew Mini Delight Garden Friends set and the Altenew Zero Waste Berries and Branches die. I cut them all out, then went over them with brown and gold ink, applied with a sponge:
EMBELLISHMENTS: ASSEMBLE!!!!!
I cut a little slit in the basket to nestle the smaller pumpkins:
I played with the layout of the big elements and when I figured out where I wanted them, I went in with a mini blending brush and the Mocha ink and laid down shadows from the elements:
Last step was stuffing all the branches, filler leaves and acorns :)
I hope you had fun following me along in the process of building this card project! I also hope you hit the link at the top of the page and follow along the hop challenge!! To snag the products I used in this project (except the pumpkins) click HERE to visit the Altenew Store.
See you all next month for another Inspiration Station Blog Hop Challenge!
