Altenew | Winter Lantern Card – December 2025 Release + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes)

Hello and welcome to Altenew December 2025 Release!

You probably came from Altenew Blog. Do not forget to check out what other members of Altenew design team and guest designers have created. There are so many beautiful projects from talented designers. Also at each stop, you have a chance to win a prize.

ALTENEW | WINTER LANTERN CARD – DECEMBER 2025 RELEASE

WINTER LANTERN WATERCOLOR CARD

I made a Winter Wishes card using new products from release and combined stamping, stenciling, and watercolor to create a soft winter scene. Even though the card isn’t fully watercolor, watercolor played an important role in bringing certain elements to life.

I started by creating the background using a panel from the Cold Press Watercolor Paper Set. To add a moody winter feel, I created a watercolor wash using the Starry Night watercolor from the new The Mint Gardener Moody Brights Watercolor Compact. I let the wash flow naturally across the panel to keep the background loose and organic.

Once the background was dry, I added branches by stenciling through the Branching Out Stencil using Espresso Fresh Dye Ink. After the branches were in place, I wanted to add a snowy effect to them.

To do this, I slightly shifted the stencil upward and stenciled over the branches again, this time using clear embossing ink. I sprinkled Pure White Embossing Powder over the embossed areas, then used a small dry brush to carefully remove powder from places where I didn’t want it. This allowed the brown branches to remain visible while the embossing powder created the look of snow resting on top. Once I was happy with the balance, I heat set the embossing.

Next, I moved on to the lantern, which was created using the Decorative Lantern Die Set. All of the lantern pieces were die cut from the same Cold Press Watercolor Paper so the textures would stay consistent. I watercolored the pieces using the 36 Watercolor Pen Set along with The Mint Gardener Moody Brights Watercolors. For the glowing areas of the lantern, I used Lemon Drops and Peach Glow to create warm yellow and orange tones. The remaining lantern elements were painted with Jet Black Watercolor to keep the lantern bold and dramatic against the softer background. After everything was dry, I assembled all of the layers and adhered the lantern together, then popped it up on the background panel using adhesive foam squares.

Before adding the sentiment, I added splatters of Pure White Ink Spray to the panel to create the look of falling snow. The splatters landed across the background and slightly on the lantern as well, which helped tie all of the elements together. Once the splatters were dry, I added the sentiment, stamped using the Winter Wishes stamp from the Winter Florals Stamp Set, and popped it up with foam adhesive for a bit of dimension.

To finish the card, I mounted the panel onto a white card base. I didn’t add any additional embellishments because I wanted to keep the scene soft and snowy, with a focus on the watercolor textures. The ink splatters provided just enough detail, making the card feel complete while still keeping that light, wintery watercolor look.

PRIZES

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $50 gift certificate to 4 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by December 18th for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 5 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew’s Blog Hop Post on December 20th, 2025.

The winner of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog.

GET HOPPING!

The next stop in the blog hop will be Agnieszka Małyszek. If you got lost you can find the full list of blog hop participants below.

BLOG HOP