Hello and thank you for stopping by. Today I am taking part in an Instagram Hop celebrating all things Altenew Educator Program. I became an Altenew Educator in March of 2019 and I consider it to be a real milestone in my crafty journey. To celebrate all the inspiration of the Altenew Educator Program, I am joining my fellow educators in sharing some inspiration from our favorite classes from the program. I chose Creative Coloring with Artist Markers. In the two cards I made today, I used alcohol ink and not the actual Artist Markers to make a really cool background. Continue reading for details on how I made these two cards. Affiliate links are used at no cost to you. If you chose to shop through these links, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thanks for your support. 

Thank you so much for joining me on the Altenew Educator Blog Hop. There is so much inspiration from the Altenew Educators in this hop as well as prizes! If you are hopping along you have come from Nandini Karmarkar of Paint, Paper and Scissors Your next stop on the hop is Irina Fonina of Creative Scrapbooking. Keep reading for how I used some of my oldest Altenew items in a new way. 

Hello and thank you for joining the Altenew Educators for this fun and inspiring hop.
If you are hopping along with us, you have just visited the absolutely creative Neha Aggarwall of Auzz Trinkets and Crafts. Your next stop is the amazingly prolific Teri Wilson of Teri's Mailbox.  For more details and to add your own twist on Floral with Geometric Elements, please visit theAltenew Card Blog where you can upload your own designs. We'd love to see your ideas!

If you are curious about becoming an Altenew Educator or are already working through the program, please email me or leave a comment below. I would be happy to share how becoming an Altenew Educator has improved my card making skills and allowed me to share my love of crafting with others. 

The theme of this hop is geometric florals; the idea of combining bold geometric patterns and soft florals was so appealing. For this hop I made two cards using the technique of second generation stamping. Please read on for how I made these two cards.

Hello and thank you for joining me today on this Altenew Educators Blog Hop. The focus of this hop is celebrating the versatility of stencils. If you’re hopping along, you’ve come from the very talented, Rosie Neustaedter. The next stop is the multifacetedNandini Karmarkar. Scroll to the end of this post for the full blog hop list or head over to the Altenew card blog for more information and to win prizes.

Stencils are so versatile given the number of techniques you can do with them and Altenew has some beautiful stencils. When I receive new goodies, I immediately play with them to test them out and see how they work. This method leaves me with a lot of backgrounds that don't end up as cards. In this post, I take those backgrounds I have made previously and add elements to make cards. Please continue reading to see how I store and use odds and ends from other projects to make the cards today. Affiliate links are used in this blog. If you choose to shop through them, I may receive a small commission which is used to support this blog. Thank you for your support. 

Hello Crafty Friends,
I am posting for the Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP) blog hop. This hop is to honor those heroes who are on the front lines doing their job everyday to help all of us stay safe and healthy. Thank you for all you do. 

If you are continuing on the hop, you have just arrived from the fabulous, Vicki Finger. After my blog, you will continue onto the amazing, Nandini Karmarkar. The full hop list is at the end of this post. You will also find information about prizes because what is an Altenew Hop without prizes!

This is no ordinary hop! You can join in the fun as well. On the Altenew Card Blog, you can add your card to the Linky Party. Any cards you make based on the hop theme of "Giving Thanks" can be linked up. Make sure to mention that you are taking part in the Altenew Educators Blog Hop and Linky Party. We would love to see what you create; so Link on Up!

For this hop today, I focused on creating colorful backgrounds and keeping the floral images simple. These cards are quick to reproduce so you can send out a lot to say thanks to all of those amazing people on the front lines. Please continue on to learn more about my cards. Affiliate links are included within this post for your convience. 

Hello friends! Thank you for joining me for the Altenew Educator Program Blog hop - If you are following along on the hop, you have just come from the amazing Irina Fonina from CreativeScrapbooking. The next stop on the hop is the very creative Vicki Finger from Twinkling Paper Studio. A full list of the blogs are at the end of this post. If you get lost, please go back to the Altenew Card Blog. Make sure to leave some love on the Altenew Card blog and each of the blog stops along the way for a chance to win a gift certificate to Altenew so you can pick up your favorite floral set. 

Flowers have a language and can be used to send messages conveying friendship, love and support. Altenew is known for their amazing floral images.  In this post, I use Altenew's floral stamp sets to build cards to convey messages of: steadfast friendship, true love and hope. Please continue reading to learn about the language of flowers and how I put together these cards.

Hello and thank you for joining me on this blog hop to celebrate The Altenew Educator Program and Love & Friendship. If you are following along on the hop, you have come from the talented Nandini Karmarkar of Paint, Paper, Scissors. Your next stop on the blog is the amazing Christine Pennington. If you get lost along the way, see the full list on the Altenew Card Blog.
I am excited and honored to be a part of a very selective group of such talented people. The Altenew Educator Program really helped me to gain confidence in my card making and helped set me on a path to teach others about the joy in making and sending cards. Each amazing Altenew Academy class taught me how to improve my skills and introduced me to new ways of looking at my crafting supplies. The support from the Altenew Educator Program Coordinators really helps boost your confidence, improve your card designs, as well as your photography and blogging skills. Watercoloring is a medium I struggled with but the Altenew Academy has three great watercolor classes that helped me to improve my skills: Watercolor Basics and Beyond, Watercolor Creative Media and Stunningly Simple Watercolor Techniques. I took all three of these classes and they were wonderful. 

Today I will be featuring the Altenew watercolor pan set which is a 36 half pan watercolor set that coordinates perfectly with the Altenew Inks. I made three cards for this blog hop that feature three ways to watercolor: with black pigment ink, white heat embossing and no line. Thank you for joining me on this hop to celebrate the Altenew Educator Program.

In November of 2018, I embarked on a journey where I was not sure was going to lead; I became a participant in the Altenew Educator Certification Program. For the past 5 months I have been steadily working towards certification under the guidance and tutelage of Virginia Lu and Erum Tasneem who have been so gracious with their time and positive feedback. Throughout this journey, I have taken 25 classes at Altenew Academy, made 44 cards, one tag, four framed pieces of art and now taught one class. I feel proud of my accomplishments and happy to be able to share a love of crafty techniques to my friends and get them excited to try something new. Please read on for how the class went, the fun we had and what the students learned in the class. If you would like to read about how I prepared for the class, click here. Affiliate links are used in this post. If you choose to purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for your support.

For the final challenge of the Altenew Educator Certification Program, I will be teaching a 2 hour card class full of techniques to 4-10 people. After the class, I will be blogging about how it went but I wanted to do a post before the class to discuss building an idea, setting up for a class and figuring how to break down ideas and make them accessible to others. Please read on for how I plan on teaching this class.

Since starting last November with the Altenew Educator Certification Program, I have made 42 cards, four pieces of home decor and one tag using supplies from Altenew. I’ve enjoyed this journey and every class I took through Altenew Academy. I am currently working my way through Level 3 Certification and this last class for the Altenew Educator Program was Sentiments with Impact. I looked forward to this class as cards need sentiments and having the right thing to say or the right way to say it sometimes gets lost behind the technique or the main image on the card. The instructor focused on using sentiments in different ways to make them the main focus on a card. I was intrigued by stacking sentiments and using different stamps that say the same thing to provide impact to the message. For today’s card I used small sentiments from four different Altenew stamp sets to create a background. Please continue reading to learn how I put together this card. For your convenience the materials I used are listed at the bottom of this post. Affiliate links are used at no cost to you. If you decide to purchase through these links I may receive a small commission thank you for your support.