Altenew December 2018 Markers/Embellishments Release Blog Hop + Giveaway



Hey everyone, you may have arrived here from Virginia Lu's blog, welcome! Today I am here to celebrate the December releases which are two new colour sets of Altenew's Artist Markers and also a stunning bundle of versatile and fun scrapbooking embellishments which of course are right up my alley!

I have challenged myself to use a stamp I love, the Bamboo Rose stamp and die set, and the markers to create my page today. 

Here is the page I created:



Some close up images and a little more about this page:

The subject of my page is my two children (again!). I wanted to create a page to document what good little friends they are to each other. There is 21 months between them and it always makes me so happy when they play nicely together. Yes, they certainly have their moments; he's looking at me funny, she's looking out my window, he/she wont share, etc, but at the end of a day if one of them is in any trouble or gets hurt they are always there for each other. I really hope this continues with them through adulthood, what a special bond they have. 

I have used a few key Altenew goodies here; the Reflection scrapbook kit, the Bamboo Rose stamp set, the Primary Artist Markers and some of the new veneer and enamel dot embellishments.
I printed my photo in approx a 3x4" size and positioned it at the top left of my layout. This allowed me to cluster the florals around that. Now those of you are regular users of markers may be cringing at my attempts to colour these florals. I have to admit this was my first time using markers like this and yes it was scary, but I did find out that I really enjoyed the process. The colouring was somewhat therapeutic. The process of colouring took me a lot longer than I had anticipated - but I do like the end result. 


I chose to scatter the bamboo rose coloured florals on somewhat of a diagonal on the page. I love that the way they are positions guides your eyes into the photos. 


The wood veneer 'friends' title worked well and I was able to extend that title with a few letter stickers from my scrapbooking stash. 


I framed the entire layout in some of the patterned paper in the kit. I love how the multiple colours featured in the paper compliment the coloured flowers so well. 


Here is a pic of the artist markers I used. For these florals I used a combination of the first two colours.

Keep on reading to see how you can enter this hop and win yourself some goodies. 




Prizes:

To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 6 lucky winners! How awesome is that!

I am also giving away a $30 gift certificate. All you need to do is leave a comment below. I will announce a winner on the 12th December.

Altenew Card Blog

Kathy Racoosin

Erum Tasneem

Kristina Pokazanieva

Nicole Picadura

Kelly Latevola

Enza Gudor

Kathleen Graumüller

Sveta Fotinia

Lilith Eeckels

TaeEun Yoo

Therese Calvird

Anna Komenda

Zinia Redo

Vicky Papaioannou

Lydia Evans

Laura Jane

Norine Borys

Nathalie DeSousa

Altenew Scrapbook Blog

Zsoka Marko

Virginia Lu

Raquel Bowman - You are here ....

Svitlana Shayevich

Gayatri Murali

Kymona Tracey

Erica A-B

Agnieszka Malyszek


Thanks so much for stopping by today and for all of your lovely comments. Your next stop is  Svitlana Shayevich.
Raquel x

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Altenew Crafty Friends Blog Hop Day 1 + Giveaway


Hey everyone, welcome to Day 1 of the Crafty Friends Blog hop for Altenew. I am so excited to be a friend and fan of the amazing company Altenew. You possibly arrived here from Kristina's blog, thanks so much for stopping by and joining in on this hop!

Here is the layout that I have created to share with you today. 

Todays layout focus' on the things I love most; gorgeous papers and embellishments and storytelling. I am a big advocate for getting my stories (however short) onto my pages. I think that is the root of my passion for scrapbooking really; documenting our everyday. I have memories of going through photos after my grandparents passed and thinking to myself; who is in those photos, what are they doing, where were they? etc. Sometimes I would be lucky enough to find a small handwritten name on the back of a photo and a year. That was like finding gold and was few and far between. I think to myself how much I would love to be able to read the stories about what things were like in those photographs of my family in the past. To me, what I am doing is special, and even if it is not appreciated by those around me now, I am sure long after I am gone and my children are older it will be. That's the hope anyway and the big drive behind why I do what I do. Can anyone else relate to this?

My kiddies are growing up so quick. These photos were taken on a recent family trip away. The town we went to was having a big festival for the weekend. We went on a 'farm hop' and visited a few of the local farms in the area who opened their doors to the public on this day. This particular farm had free range chickens and produced eggs. The kids absolutely loved the baby chicks and spent so much time with them picking them up and talking to them. It was so adorable. 

I used the Our Family scrapbook kit available in the Altenew store to document this page. I did mix it a little with the Reflections kit too as I couldnt help but add in some of it's embellishments. 

The journaling for this page is not too detailed, but detailed enough that you know the who, what and where of these photos. 

The main feature of the page is a fussy cut floral from one of the patterned papers in the kit. I decided to only incorporate part of the design and make a feature of it on my page; nestling my photos within the florals and the journaling in the negative space. The colours within this kit were the perfect match to the colours within the photos. That can sometimes be a tough feat when you are wanting to use particular products on a layout. 

I used a combination of regular tape adhesive; I use the Altenew tape runner (its so quick and easy) and a foam adhesive to add a pop of dimension. I included the wood cranes in this layout, I know they are not chickens ha - but I took some crafty licence and figured there were birds so added them to a couple of places on the page. 



You will notice that I have three main areas of embellishments on my layout. One to the top right of the page next to the photo, one on the bottom left of the left side photo and one where the journaling is. I tend to create all layouts with this 'three' clusters rule and adding them to the layout in a way that forms a triangle. This helps to guide your eyes from one spot on the layout to another and so on, giving you a reading/viewing path on my page.


Anyways enough from me, onto the amazing details of how you can join in and win!

Special Offer to you!!!

FREE U.S. shipping with code CRAFTY18 or $5 OFF international shipping with code FRIENDS18 at checkout. Offer valid from 11/29/2018 at 12:01 am EST through 12/1/2018 at 11:59 pm EST. Not valid on prior purchases. Cannot be combined with other promo codes.


Prizes for this Hop
Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 5 lucky winners and one Altenew Academy class to 5 lucky winners. There are also 12 awesome friends who are celebrating with us, and they are offering the following prizes:



My Sweet Petunia: 3 MISTI stamping tools(Memory, Original, and Mini)
Jennifer McGuire Ink: Altenew $50 gift certificate & 10 handmade cards
Online Card Classes: 3 class spots
Create and Craft TV: £50 gift certificate
Ellen Hutson LLC: $30 gift certificate
Chameleon Art Products: 1 pack of 5 Chameleon Pens
Stamp & Scrapbook Expo: $25 gift certificate
Butterfly Reflections Ink: $25 gift certificate
Simon Says Stamp: $25 gift certificate
Scrapbook & Cards Today Magazine: 2 copies of Scrapbook & Cards Today Fall 2018 issue
Scrapbook.com: $25 gift certificate
Tombow USA: 1 pack of 10 Dual Brush Pens

Be sure to leave comments on all the blog posts by Sunday, December 9th, 2018 for a chance to win! 37 winners will be chosen at random from the comments left on all of the blogs listed below and will be announced on the Altenew Card Blog and Altenew Scrapbook Blog on December 15th, 2018. How cool is that!!!!!

You can also win a $20 gift certificate just by commenting here on my blog. I will announce a winner by 12/9/2018.

Blog Hop Order:
Altenew Card Blog
Jennifer McGuire
May Sukyong Park
My Sweet Petunia
Kathy Racoosin
Norine Borys
Chameleon Art Products
Svitlana Shayevich
Kristina Pokazanieva
Raquel Bowman - You are here *****
Keeway Tsao
Butterfly Reflections Ink
Virginia Lu
Laura Jane
Simon Says Stamp
Lilith Eeckels
Dana Gong
Alex Syberia
Stamp & Scrapbook Expo
Zinia Redo
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Zsoka Marko
Meghann Andrew
Kay Miller
Thanks so much for popping by today, you're next stop is Keeway Tsao's blog.

Raquel xxx
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Happy Heart using Bohemian Dreams by Cocoa Vanilla

Hey everyone, I'm here sharing a Feature Title layout that I shared over on the CVS blog recently. I am using the gorgeous Bohemian Dream collection for this layout. I tell you what! I never tire of using this amazing and beautiful collection, just so so stunning.

Here is the layout that I created:



Here is a process video of how this layout came together:


It seems to be that most of my pages contain cut files the last couple of years, so of course I chose a cut file as a way to make a feature title. The cut files I used on this page are available from fellow DT members website ‘Cut to You’ by Gwen Wruck. I loved the ‘happy heart’ design and wanted a beautiful title that matched my sweet photo of my two children holding hands. To create the feature title I chose patterned papers in the 6×6 paper pad that had a more plain print than a bold pattern. This is because I really wanted to be able to distinguish what the text was saying, I think the soft blue and purple papers were able to achieve that. I added some patterned papers in the hearts that tie in all the colours of the ephemera pieces.

Here are some close ups of my layout:









To finish this layout I adhered the whole white back ground card stock to a piece of the Kaleidoscope patterned paper. I added some machine stitching to the edge which adds a lovely textural detail. Enamel dots and some die cut butterflies finished the page off.



I hope you have been inspired to have a go at a feature title on your next scrapbooking page! See you soon...

Raquel x

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Perfect You with Cocoa Vanilla Studio 'More than Words'

Hey everyone, I'm here with you today sharing a recent Cocoa Vanilla project. For todays layout I decided to use the beautiful More Than Words collection to document a nice photo that my daughter and I took together last month. I just love this photo and wanted to scrapbook it, but I also wanted to document what a sweet soul my little girl has. I sometimes fear that she may be a little sensitive like myself, but at the same time I love how much she cares for others around her.

Here is the layout that I created:



Here are some close ups of the layout: The Polaroid die cut was part of the ephemera pack.











I hope that you have been inspired by my layout today. Don’t forget to check out the CVS store if there was anything that I used on todays layout that you would love to get your hands on.

Raquel xxx
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Altenew Build-A-Flower: Flourishing Zinnia Blog Hop + Giveaway



Hey everyone, I am excited to be a Guest for Altenew today. Each month they release a new Build-a-Flower design and today I am sharing a project with the latest release called - Build-a-Flower: Flourishing Zinnia.

Here is a look at the stamp set:



Here is my completed layout using the set - 



I also have a process video to share with you today documenting how this layout came together including the process of stamping the beautiful Flourishing Zinnia florals:




To create this page I used the new release Build a Flower set and the Reflections Scrapbook Kit. 






These next two photos give you a good look at the details of the layout:

I love the layered look of the Build a Flower floral sets, so much detail is achieved through the application of four inks, don't you think?


On this layout I am documenting a recent girls night out I had with my bestie. They don't happen very often and are few and far between. We had such a fun night and it was a moment I wanted in my scrapbook. 




Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today. To celebrate the release of this stamp set Altenew are running a little giveaway.

There are two ways you can enter this hop today!


Firstly, to celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $30 gift certificate to six lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or Altenew Scrapbook Blog for a chance to win. Three winners will be announced on the Card Blog, and other three winners will be announced on the Scrapbook Blog on 10/9/2018.


You can also win a $20 gift certificate to the Altenew store by simply leaving a comment on this post! I will announce a winner here on my blog by 10/7/2018.

Here is the Build-A-Flower: Flourishing Zinnia Blog Hop order:




Your next stop is Anna Komenda, Happy hopping!



Raquel x
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Totally Rad - A black + white + one challenge on the Cocoa Vanilla blog

Hey everyone, its Raquel here today sharing my latest layout with you for Cocoa Vanilla Studio. This is my layout for the black + white + one theme that was on the CVS blog recently. As you can see I have chosen to add the colour blue to my share. For this layout I have mainly used the new Boys Rule collection which is now available in the Cocoa Vanilla online store here. I am documenting my little man and I’s love for our special fun days out that we have together, on this particular day we had gone into town to spend his birthday money.

For the main element of the layout I chose to adapt the star die cut that is available in the large die cut and backing kit and trimmed some of the stars off so it fits within an 8.5″x11″ background. I used the Entitled paper to back three of the die cut stars, this was where I brought in the main element of blue to my page.

Here is the layout that I created:


Here are some close ups of the layout:
It was fun to delve into some of the other boys collections from CVS to embellish the layout to match with the white, black and blue colour palette.







I just adore the shadows that die cuts give to a layout when they are adhered with a foam adhesive. I chose to do the same on this page.



The layout didn’t quite feel finished as I was working so I decided to trim the white card stock down and back the whole layout on the Happy Go Lucky paper. Once I had backed the layout I also machine stitched in white cotton around the edges to add extra texture.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today. 

Raquel x




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Some Hip Kit Club projects using the August 2018 kits

Hey everyone,

I thought I would pop in today and share some of my recent projects for Hip Kit Club featuring the August 2018 kits.

The Main Kit

The Project Life Kit

The Embellishment Kit


Here are the projects that I have created:




You can see process videos for these layouts over on my YouTube channel also 

See you all soon!

Raquel x

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