Today I'm back with another card for the Altenew Educator Certification Program and this time I made a card for the course Beautiful Details. I was stunned by the water coloring talents of Marika and decided to use my Altenew water colors for this card.
I have zero talent for water coloring, let me start by saying that :-) But you have to start somewhere with a medium you need lots of practice with, so I stamped one of the leaves of the Peony Bouquet set a bunch of times, water colored the images and die cut them. I spread them all out to create the background of my card.
For the sentiment I used the Mega Greetings 2 set. I created an ombre effect with the inks of the Red Cosmos set for the big 'you'. The 'amaze me' part is white heat embossed on a black card stock die cut label.
The design of this card is completely different than what I usually do and honestly I'm not really sure if I really like it. What I do like, is that these classes are pushing me to think outside the box and get out of my comfort zone. There is another water color class in this program, so I can't wait to practice more and try new things.
Today I have another card to share for the Altenew Educator Certification Program and today's card is for the Beyond Basic Backgrounds. I loved this course and really got inspired to try new things for backgrounds!
One of my newest stamp sets is Spectacular Adventures and I just love how you can layer different scenes with the sunglasses. I stamped the sunglasses with Jet Black on water color paper and used the Water Color Essential 12 pan set to create a sunset reflection in the glasses. Then I stamped the beach scene reflection inside the glasses. I die cut the image and added it to the card with foam tape.
It has been a while....we enjoyed a nice 3 week vacation with family, but I'm happy to be back to creating things! I finished all classes for AECP Level 1 and now it is time to share with you my final assignment for this level.
I had to create 2 sets of cards, a his and her set, and create packaging for the sets of cards as well. For the cards I need to use 3 components from Level 1 classes and use them on all cards. Also a recycle element has to be used for either the cards or the packaging.
The 3 components I chose for my cards are Layering, Irresistible Inking Techniques and Celebration Stencil Techniques. Layering was an easy choice since that is my favorite thing about Altenew stamps. I have absolutely zero drawing or painting skills and these stamps make me feel a bit of an artist if you look at what you can create with them.
I started with an inking technique that I'm currently discovering: alcohol inks on a gel plate. It is really amazing what you can create with these, so that component was an easy choice for me too. Stencils are something I use with almost anything I create. I incorporated the stencil element in the inking element and you can see in the video below how it works.
So I created a couple backgrounds with this technique and used smaller pieces of it on each card. I added layering and sentiment stamps to each card for the 3rd component. I'll mention all stamp sets I used with each card below.
For the packaging I used a cut file by Lori Whitlock to create these cute card boxes. I cut the bases out of white card stock and used papers from the Altenew Enjoy the Ride collection for the decorative pieces on the boxes. I'm a hoarder of twine and ribbon, mainly collected from packages I've received. Since I had to use a recycle element for this challenge, some pieces of twine came in handy to decorate the boxes.
This challenge pulled me quite out of my comfort zone and it wasn't as easy as I thought, especially the masculine cards are something I will always struggle with. This is what I love about AECP though, I keep getting challenged. Now I can't wait to see what Level 2 will bring.
Thank you for stopping by today and check back soon for new projects!
Today I'm sharing two cards with you for the AECP Irresistible Inking Techniques course. I got triggered by the use of a brayer in one of the classes, which reminded me to use my gel plates more often. I love playing with gel plates, there are so many possibilities and different mediums you can use with it.
I used the gel plate to create the background for this card. I inked up the plate with Distress Oxide Inks Tumbled Glass, Mermaid Lagoon and Blueprint Sketch. I used a brayer to even out the ink and get a nice ombre blend. I put the Leaf Bed stencil on top of the inked plate and took a print of it. Then I removed the stencil and took another print for this card. The second time around you get a print of the negative of the stencil. You can easily create a bunch of backgrounds in a short time.
This was my last card for the AECP Level 1 courses, now I will have to do a final assignment before I will start Level 2. I've had so much fun so far already and can't wait to continue!
I'm back today with two cards for the AECP Easy Die Cutting Techniques. For some reason die cutting is not my favorite thing to do, but I always do love the final result and I really enjoyed the videos in this course.
For my first card I used the Garden Trellis Cover Die cut out that I already made for the For The Guys course, where I only used the negative squares for my card. I ink blended a piece of 4.25" by 5.5" with Cerulean Skies Crisp Dye Inks and created an ombre effect. Then I used the cover die.
The flowers, leaves and sentiment are from the Strength Blooms stamp set and I used the Crisp Dye Inks sets Nature's Wonders and Summer Afternoon. The leaves are one layer stamps, so to give them a little more interest I used a lighter and darker color for each print.
For the second card I used a Layering Flower Die for the first time. I stayed away from them until recently, because I love stamping so much, but I have to say that I totally fell in love now! I used the Hibiscus Garden 3D set and it turns out so beautiful! I don't have a stash of all colors of card stock, so I inked white card stock pieces that I used for the die cuts. This way you get the exact colors that you want. For the leaves I used Nature's Wonders (yes, this is my absolute favorite set for leaves!) and for the flowers I used Summer Afternoon and Sugarplums.
I placed the bouquet on a piece of white card stock that I die cut with a faux stitching pattern. The sentiment is from the Layered Laurel stamp set.
Thank you for stopping by today and enjoy your weekend!
