Altenew March 2016 Release Blog Hop

Hello!

Today I have the most exciting news to share. Way back last year, Tasnim asked if I was interested designing stamps.. well, my first impression was.. me... are you really talking to me about this? Well, I kinda laughed at the whole idea at first, but then I started to think and sketch and you know... things evolved. This whole stamp design thing has been such a big learning curve for me, I had to learn to sketch, trace and above all, I needed to learn how to use Illustrator to be able to get my hand drawn images into digital form... I've been nervously waiting this day to come and I'm so hoping that you'd like my designs.

When we first talked designing stamps with Tasnim, she asked me to do something from my own culture. I started to think about it and when I need to think.. I need to walk too. I went to a walk with Simo, who is a dog of my dear friend - he's so cute by the way - and I thought about what would be something from my culture and of course since this is my first set, I also wanted it to be sort of personal since I knew already at that point that I will put many hours to this thing if I was gonna do this. While walking in the forests with Simo I looked around and had this flashback moment from my youth. We used to have a dog - Cecilia. She was a Tibetan Terrier and she was amazing. I used to take walks with her and we usually went to this little place near my childhood home - it was our place to calm down and sat down for a moment. My childhood home is by the lake and on the other side of the lake there is this little peninsula which is the most beautiful and the most peaceful place - at least to me. It only grows birch trees in that peninsula and we used to sat down to a grass bed with Cecilia and listen to the waves slowly hit the sand with birds singing on the back. Nowadays, someone had brought a bench to that place so I think there's at least one more person who also loves that place. 

So that was the inspiration to my first ever set. While designing, I also wanted to make a  set that was useable for many different kind of techniques since we all love to do different kinds of things. I'm sharing two of my cards today that I have made with my set and later this week and weeks to come, I'll be sharing more and I will make them into video tutorials as well. So, if you don't want to miss them, please subscribe to my YouTube channel here.

I'm also participating in the Altenew March 2016 release Blog Hop and if you came from my amazingly talented and sweet teammate May Park's blog, you're on the right track. If not, please start at the Altenew blog.

Supplies:
Stamps: Birch Land,  Garden Grow and Succulents.
Inks: Frayed Leaf and Forest Glades Altenew Crisp Inks, Versafine Onyx Black, Tumbled Glass Distress Ink
Paper: Neenah Solar White 80lb, Hammer White Paper 100gsm by Soho Creative

Supplies:
Stamps: Birch Land, To the Moon, Winter Cardinal and Sketchy Cities America 2.
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black, Tumbled Glass and Stormy Sky Distress Inks, Fairy Dust Pure Color Dye Ink, SSS Smoke Dye Ink
Superfine Clear Embossing Powder from Ranger
White Jelly Roll Pen

Copic Markers: 0 - N0 - N1 - N3 - N5 - N7

I used three shades of grey ink to stamp the images and then I took my copic multi-liner and added the black details to the cottage and to the trees. To create a sky I used a cool grey marker (copics) and added the snow with white gelly roll pen. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Cottage, Snowing and Pine Tree
Inks: Fairy Dust Pure Color Dye Ink, SSS Smoke Dye Ink, Jet Black Altenew Crisp Ink

Black Copic Multiliner 0.1
Copic Markes: C0 - C1 - C3
White Jelly Roll Pen

Copic Markers: C0 - C1 - C3

GIVEAWAY

To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away $50 gift certificate to three lucky winners. Please leave a comment on the Altenew blog by Friday March 18th, 11:59 pm EST for a chance to win.

And there is more! I will randomly choose a winner from comments left on this post and the prize will be $30 gift certificate to Altenew online store. Please leave a comment on this post by Friday March 18th, 11:59 pm EST for a chance to win. I will announce the winner on my blog after soon after.

GET HOPPING!

Hopefully you are having fun hopping. Next on the hop is fabulous and so sweet and kind Svetlana Hayevich. If you encounter a broken link along the hop, please start at the beginning from Altenew blog.

I really hope you liked what you saw. Thank you so much for visiting and have a great day!

Hugs,

Marika