Birthday Thanks & Photos

Wow, have I had a nice birthday and it's not even over yet! I received cards from Kathy, Jane, Elaine, Linda Jo, Golda, Barry, Trudi and Terrie. Thanks you all so much.

The other thing i want to share is an early gift from Larry. He got me the entire set of Altenw inks! I got a 4 step Altenew stamp set for Christmas from my daughter but I didn't have inks that worked for that process. I was telling Larry about that (smart girl that I am) and he said he would buy them for me for my birthday. You can buy the sets individually but around here we go big or go home. This past Monday, Linda Jo came over and we spent some time making up samples for each set of ink. So here are photos of the inks and the samples. They really are beautiful and I love my gift and my sweet husband, Larry.

Happy Birthday Ellie and enjoy your new inks

Wow! That is a great present and your examples of the inks are gorgeous! Enjoy that stamp set and all the gorgeousness you will create with it.

Ellie, Glad you are being showered with love... and ink pads!
Those flowers are amazing... and the colors are so intense. Fun!

MrsAsperin-Kathy wrote:Ellie, Glad you are being showered with love... and ink pads!
Those flowers are amazing... and the colors are so intense. Fun!

Thanks, Kathy! I posted the inks so you all could see them in case you are interested in buying any of them . I really miss having local stores where you can actually see things and ask questions before you buy them. My favorite "local" store is about 25 miles away and she doesn't have these inks. I took a real leap of faith by ordering them online but I resolved to return them if I didn't like them. I can attest that it's a good product. If you were only going to buy a couple of sets, the pinks, yellows or purples would be a good start.

Ellie, great assortment of cards! Tell me how the inks differ from other ink pads (SU, PTI, etc.). The colors sure are vibrant and what a great flower stamp!

eoconnell wrote:Ellie, great assortment of cards! Tell me how the inks differ from other ink pads (SU, PTI, etc.). The colors sure are vibrant and what a great flower stamp!

I have a lot of other ink pads; too many , in fact. When I tried to use this 4 step stamp, I discovered that most of them don't go together. I sat with all of them and smeared each color family on an index card. The only card that had a decent set to work with was the pinks. My blues and greens were all different hues that clashed with each other. (Makes sense since I mostly just stamp an image or a sentiment with them.)
These are sets of four in the same family ranging from a very pale shade to the last one being pretty dark. An exception is the green set which has three greens and a black. Another one has kind of an oddball combo of a pink, a peach, a mango and a brown. It's my least favorite. The rest are straightforward four blues or four purples, etc. I have seen a chart online where someone has used the Altenew stamps with Distress Inks. They would definitely work too if you have enough colors.
I got the Painted Butterflies stamp set for my birthday and tried it yesterday. It' s only three steps with one of them being the black outline so that could easily be done with inks on hand.

Cool beans El! Thanks for the info and love that butterfly set!

Did you not get my card?

Ellie, love all the cards and what a wonderful Birthday gift!!! Do you have that new stamp tool that lets you align your different layers?