Polychromatic - AECP Level 2

 Good morning!  I don't know about you, but I am so happy that we are nearly to Friday!  I am trying to catch up on my blogging from my incredibly productive weekend. 

Today, I am sharing with you two cards that I created for my next AECP course - Polychromatic.  I seriously loved everything about this class!  It was all about color and I learned SO much! 

In the first lesson, we created a colorful background, using the warm tones in one corner of the card, cool tones opposite, and the drawing them together using the colors that fall in the middle of the road.  For my card, I used the reds, oranges and yellows on the left, and blues and purples on the right.  I actually had an OOPS! moment, when I picked up the wrong ink pad and stamped the first layer of my flower in an orange tone again, but I picked up the correct ink and stamped it a second time, and decided I was OK with having two flowers of nearly the same color together.  I used the green leaves to fill in the white space and pull the warm and cool shades together. 

Once I was happy with my background, I die-cut the large sentiment from the panel, being very careful to not lose the inside bits, as I would need them again.  I die-cut the sentiment three more times out of white card stock and adhered all 4 of them together, with the stamped layer on top.  I then attached my card panel to the card base.  Once I had this done, I began to construct the front of my card.  I struggled a bit with getting the inner pieces of the letters in place, as when I built up my sentiment, the layers were not lined up precisely so the inner bits did not go in easily.  To remedy this, I turned my sentiment over, placed the bits in, added glue (only to the center pieces) and laid my sentiment die-cut in place, using my tweezers to press the center pieces down to the card base.  Once I had them all in place, I added glue to my sentiment and adhered it. 

I heat embossed a sentiment strip and attached it with foam tape and added some clear sequins to give the card a bit of sparkle and shine. 

I was so excited to see this technique in this class, as I had bought these dies just for this purpose and had not had a chance to try it yet!  I know this is a technique that I will use again and again, as it is relatively simple, but produces a stunning result! 

For my second card, I used the third lesson - Faux Handwatercoloring Technique.  Again, something I have seen, but not tried, and what fun it was!  

I started with a sheet of watercolor paper and a layering floral stamp set.  I pulled out my watercolor markers and using the solid layer of the flowers, I colored it with the lightest marker.  I then spritzed it with water a few times to get it nice and wet, and stamped it on the watercolor paper.  I then used the same process with the leaves, allowing my first flower layer to dry just a bit.  Using the detailed layer of my flowers, I inked them up with the darker marker, spritzed with water and stamped it over the light layer and repeated the process for my leaves.  Once they were dry, I die-cut them with the coordinating dies and set them aside.  

To create my panel, I wanted a soft background with just a hint of color, so I pulled out my new Altenew Blending Tool, and I have to tell you that this was a game changer for me!  It covers a lot more space quickly, and gives a beautiful, soft blend.  I used the lightest blue from the Tranquility color family to lay down my color and then added a touch of the next darkest shade.  I added some black ink splatters using my liquid watercolors and set it aside to dry.  Once it was completely dry, I heat embossed my sentiment on to the panel.  I had another OOPS! moment when I smudged the embossing powder when trying to clean up stray bits of powder.  I took my heat tool to it anyhow and let it work its magic, and then I used my Versamark Pen to draw in the missing area, added more powder and heated it up.  I adhered my panel to the card base and went to work gluing my flowers in place.  I decided not to trim the leaves that were hanging over the edge, and will just use a larger envelope to send it.  To complete my card, I added some gold sequins to tie in the gold sentiment.  

This process was a bit of a challenge for me, as I am a color inside of the lines kind of girl, and there are no lines. I do love the soft, flowing look of hand watercolored images, though and I am so happy with how this turned out!  

Products Used:

Both cards:

• Recollections 110 # Card Stock:  White, Black (first card)
• Versamark Watermark Ink Pad

Card 1:

• Altenew Watercolor Wonders Stamp Set
• Altenew Enchanted Rose Stamp Set
• Altenew Mega Hello Die
• Altenew Crisp Dye Ink:  Sunray, Chamomile, Snapdragon, Marigold, Limeade, Lime, Fresh Leaf, Wisteria, Hydrangea, Ultraviolet, Iceberg, Eastern Sky, Ultramarine, Frosty Pink, Coral Berry, Ruby Red
• Wow! Embossing Powder:  Opaque Bright White
• Simon Says Stamp Clear Sequins

Card 2:

• Arches 300gsm/140# Watercolor Paper
• Altenew Peony Bouquet Stamps and Dies
• Altenew Fancy Greetings Stamp Set
• Altenew Watercolor Brush Markers:  Citrus Burst, Watm Sunshine, Autumn Blaze, Limeade, Moss
• Altenew Crisp Dye Ink:  Misty Morning, Cloudy Sky
• Stampin' Up Embossing Powder:  Gold
• Altenew Ink Blending Tool
• PinkFresh Liquid Watercolor:  Black
• Simon Says Stamp Gold Sequins

A s always, thanks for popping in!  I hope you found something to inspire you and get some crafty time in today!  Happy stamping! 

Easy Ink Blending Techniques - AECP Level 1

 Good morning!  Today, I am sharing my projects that I am submitting for my fourth AECP Level 1 course - Easy Ink Blending Techniques.  I really enjoyed this class, as several of the techniques were completely unfamiliar to me and forced me to really stretch myself.  It also allowed me to use some items that I have had on hand, but not had time to play with. 

My journey through this course really evolved quite a bit from where I initially started.  I was familiar with, but by no means proficient at basic ink-blending on card stock using ink and an ink-blending tool.  In fact, I had just used that technique on the project that I submitted for All About Layering 2, so I wanted to use a different technique for this course.  I decided to focus on the technique in Lessons 4 and 5 - Emboss Resist and Faux Watercoloring.  I have used the Emboss Resist Technique many times, but paired with the Faux Watercoloring Technique was something entirely new to me and I love the results!

 One thing that I had never done was to create color swatches to see the effects of different card stocks on ink colors.  This provides an extremely helpful visual aid in determining what paper and what colors to use, as the variation in colors between papers can be drastic. 

For this part of the process, I used Neenah 80# White Card Stock, which has a relatively smooth finish and  Oat Art Studios 300g/140# Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper.  To begin with, the watercolor paper has an ivory tone to it, where the Neenah card stock is truly white.  As you can see in the photos, the Pink Pearl ink has a more peachy tone on the watercolor paper, and the Dew Drops ink is much more green,

I had just received a package of goodies from Altenew that included a bunch of the mini stamp sets that I had ordered when they were on sale, and I was itching to use the Inked Bud stamp set, so I decided to try the Faux Watercolor Technique with it.  Because the main image is so small, I thought I could try making some 3” x 3” mini notecards.  I also used the Lavender Bud mini stamp set, which didn’t have any detailed image to add additional color to, but I thought it was beautiful with the “watercolor” background.

Here are some close-up images of the individual mini notecards.

Ok, on to the card that I feel really highlights this amazing technique.  Because I am enjoying this technique, I wanted to make an A2 sized card with a larger stamp that includes more detail.  It took a few attempts for me to get the results that I wanted, mostly because I didn’t care for the way some of the colors blended when I added them. 

I started with a 4.25” x 5.5” piece of watercolor paper. I heat-embossed the larger floral image from Altenew’s Vintage Garden stamp set in white .  I began laying down my colors using my ink-blending tool until I was satisfied with the color, and then I wet my watercolor paper with water using a spritzer. For my colors, I used Altenew Crisp Dye Ink in Pinkalicious, Dew Drops, and Bamboo.

While the paper was still wet, using a wet paintbrush, I added more of the same colors to the image to add some depth to the image.  Once my panel was dry, I added more color using Distress Inks and a wet brush.  To complete my panel, I picked up some of the Distress Ink colors on my paint brush and splattered them randomly.

To assemble my card, I trimmed my panel down to 4” x 5.25” and I die-cut “Congrats” from the Altenew Signature Words Dies on black card stock and I heat embossed one of the sentiments from the Altenew Beauty Within stamp set in white on black card stock.  I trimmed the black card stock down and I adhered it to my card panel using Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue followed by the die-cut “Congrats.”

I then glued down the panel to my card base and placed some acrylic blocks on top of it to allow it to dry flat.  Once my card was dried, I added a few iridescent rhinestones to give it some sparkle and dimension.

Key Learnings;

• Taking the time to create swatches really helped me make a decision on what colors to use, based on how the paper affected the color.
• Watercolor paper is two-sided - one side tends to be very toothy (and is difficult to get a clean stamped image for me) and one side is less textured.  I don’t know how I hadn’t realized this, but it was a game changer for me!
• I loved Amy’s method of storing her blending foams on the bottom of the ink pads.  This was so helpful for me, as  hadn’t been able to figure out how to store them and keep track of which ink color they matched.  Brilliant!
• Google is my friend.  OK, this really has nothing to do with the card-making process, but about blogging.  I wanted to add 3 small aligned images, and there is no easy way to do that on Blogger.  I got my first dive into using the HTML Editor and code, and I am pretty proud of myself!
• If at first you don’t succeed, keep trying.  You will get there!

Products Used;

• Recollections 110# White Card Stock
• Neenah 80# White Card Stock
• Recollections 65# Black Card Stock
• Arches 300g/140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Paper
• Oat Art Studios 300g/140# Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper
• Altenew Vintage Garden Stamp Set
• Altenew Inked Bud Stamp Set
• Altenew Lavender Bud Stamp Set
• Altenew Crisp Dye Ink:  Lavender Fields, Bamboo, Sunny, Pinkalicious, Dew Drops
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink:  Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Mowed Lawn, Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers
• Versamark Watermark Ink Pad
• Memento Tuxedo Black Ink PadBearly Art Precision Craft Glue
• Recollections Irridescent Rhinestones
• Stampin’ Up Sequins

As always, thanks for stopping by!  Please don’t forget to follow me to stay up-to-date on my journey in the Altenew Educator Certification Program.  I hope that something I shared sparked your creativity!

Clean and Simple Boutique Cards - AECP Level 1

I am so excited to say that I have been accepted into the Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP)!  What does this mean?  It is an extensive program that has 4 levels, consisting of multiple classes, projects, and a final challenge at the end of each level.  I am just beginning on this journey, and my hope is that I will learn some new techniques, improve my skills, and become more confident in sharing my work with you! 

For the first course, I chose Clean and Simple Boutique Cards.  The Clean and Simple (CAS) concept is something that I really love, but is a huge struggle for me,  I have a hard time leaving white space, so I felt this would be a great starting point for me. 

For my project, I am using the Stamped Background concept as my inspiration.  Jennifer shared some excellent tips throughout this course.  The one that influenced me the most was to mark the center-point of my card layer and go from there.  I know that sounds ridiculously simple, but it was a game changer for me.  I have found stamped backgrounds to be very challenging, as I like everything to be in a nice straight line.  I tried to challenge myself to not focus on that and to be a “little” bit random. 

I started out using the Altenew Mini Delight: Precious Florette stamp set.  This was the first Mini Delight I received with my subscription; however, I hadn’t used it yet, so I thought it would be perfect for this project.  I inked my image with Versafine Onyx Black (very important not to use a water-based ink if you will be watercoloring or the ink will run and all your hard work will be for nothing) and stamped somewhat randomly all over my card layer. 

I then inked up some acrylic blocks with the colors I wanted to use.  I literally just smooshed my ink pad onto the block.  I then spritzed the blocks with water and used a water-painter to pick up some color.  I added a splotch of color to each gem, and was not particularly careful, as I wanted it to have the loose feeling of watercolor.  Once dry, I added a hint of sparkle using my Wink of Stella brush. 

I heat embossed the sentiment from the set using Wow Opaque White Ultra Fine embossing powder on a black strip of cardstock and adhered across the lower portion of my card panel using liquid glue. Finally, I attached the panel to my card base using liquid glue.  

I actually made a few attempts at this card before I was finally happy with the result.  A few lessons learned: if not using watercolor paper, use heavyweight cardstock (110#).  Anything lighter and it buckles with the water. A little bit of water goes a long way - the more water you add, the less vibrant the color. 

I really enjoyed this course, and am looking forward to trying some more of the techniques that I learned! 

Products used:

Recollections 110# Cardstock - Dove White

Altenew Mini Delight: Precious Florette stamp set

Altenew Crisp Dye Ink: Razzleberry, Marigold, Parrot, Ultraviolet, Galactic Stream

Versamark Watermark Stamp Pad

Versafine: Onyx Black

Wow Opaque Bright White Superfine Embossing Powder

Wink of Stella

Thanks for stopping by!