Altenew Educators Certification Program - Masking Unleashed

 Good afternoon! boy is it hot and humid here! We are melting and there is no let up in the forecast! 

I'm here today with my submissions for my final ACEP level 2 class I am so excited that this level is finished! The class today is Masking Unleashed taught by Svitlana Shayevich. I do use masking often to arrange the scenes on my cards but I have never thought of masking negatively which is what I did with this card:

I cut a piece of Neenah Solar white 5.5in x 4in and a piece of freezer paper the same size
I die cut a circle from the freezer paper and laid it over the card. Using my baby easy press I ironed these together. The freezer paper has a plastic side which melts when heated. This seals it onto the cardstock so it doesn't move and it makes a waterproof seal.
Next I stamped flowers from Crown Bloom and Tree Peony in waterproof ink, the crown bloom flower was masked so I could add the others. I watercolored these, making sure to paint the whole circle, and left it to dry.
While they were drying I matted an A2 card base with fuchsia card and cut 'wonderful' from the same card.
Once dry I used my heat tool to reheat and gently remove the freezer paper. This left me with my painted image in a perfect circle.
I trimmed this down to 4x5.5in and added it to my card with foam tape. I positioned my die cut sentiment so I could add my stamped words around it. These were stamped in black pigment ink and heat embossed with clear powder.
Finally a few clear drops finished my design.

My second card uses masks to arrange flowers, or any image, with depth and on top of each other.

To make an arrangement for flowers for your cards there is a couple of ways to achieve it. You could stamp and die cut the flowers but this would give some dimension. If you want your images flat you have to mask the flowers off.

Had I just stamped these flowers without masking this is what it would look like:

All the parts of the flowers in the back overlay the front ones, so the stems of the buds are on the petals of the peonies and the leaves just look a mess!

So I stamped the images on masking paper and fussy cut these first. when making masks it's important to but inside the stamped lines or you can be left with white spaces around your flowers.

Once I had my masks I started stamping the outline images of my flowers on Neenah solar white card stock.

I started with the top peony - I wanted this in the foreground. I placed a mask over this and stamped the second peony and masked this off. Next the buds and 2 leaves (one at either side of the main flowers) were stamped and then masked. Finally I stamped the last 2 leaves. I then reversed my stamping with the colored layers, so I started with the last 2 leaves once these were done I unmasked the 2nd set of leaves and the flower buds. In reality I didn't need to mask the buds but I did. Once the leaves and buds were colored with the layered images I unmasked the bottom peony, stamped this and repeated with the top peony.

To make up my card I matted an A2 card base with purple cardstock added my image and stamped Thank you in bottom corner. A few clear drops just balanced the design.

Thanks for stopping by. My next step is to complete my level 2 challenge - I'm excited to see what this will be!

Altenew products I used:

Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb Coverstock Purchase From: SSS | AZN | ALW	Crown Bloom Stamp and Die Bundle Purchase From: ALW	Peony Bouquet Stamp Set Purchase From: ALW	Crisp Dye Ink - Jet Black Purchase From: SSS | ALW
Crystal Clear Embossing Powder Purchase From: ALW	Crisp Dye inks - Sugar Plum Oval Set Purchase From: SSS | ALW	Artist Watercolor brushes bundle Purchase From: ALW	Build A Flower - Tree Peony Purchase From: SSS | ALW
Heartfelt Sentiments Purchase From: SSS | ALW	Crisp Dye Ink - Forest Glades Purchase From: SSS | ALW	Crisp Dye Ink - Frayed Leaf Purchase From: ALW	Artists Watercolor 24 Pan set Purchase From: ALW
Embossing Ink Purchase From: ALW

Sweet Sentiment - I love you 2

 Good morning! The weekend is upon us! Nothing planned but kicking back and chilling.

I'm back with the second card I made for Sweet Sentiment's sponsor event at Passionate Paper Creations. Using the same sentiment I have designed a male themed card:

I stamped the boy, sentiment and ASL 'I Love You' onto stamping card and colored with Copic Markers.

I then repeated the ASL sign onto blue cardstock. I chose some cardstock that coordinated my image to cut an oval aperture from and adhered this over my ASL stamped cardstock.

My A7 card base was matted with black card and my aperture card. My sentiments were matted with the same black card and added to my design. Finally using glue gel for dimension I added my signing boy.

I will be back tomorrow with her male counterpart but in the meantime please head on over to the PPC Facebook group and check out my teamies posts as well as all the other amazing work that the coloring community is sharing there.

Also go checkout Sweet Sentiment's website and other fab products!

If you love what you see please let me know in the comments!

Sweet Sentiment - I love you!

 Good morning! It's almost school time - we are counting down the days!

Today I am blogging about both a new Facebook Group and a new release from Sweet Sentiment.

If you know Rhea Weigan she is an amazing colorist and used to run a successful FB group well started up Passionate Paper Creations & Friends again and is promoting sponsors. 

For the next 4 Days Sweet Sentiment is the sponsor. This is a company run by Jammie Clark who teaches coloring classes but also has their own range of stamps. My card today is using one for her new releases - I love You, Friend

There is both a male and female character included in the set as well as I LOVE YOU spelt out in ASL 

I colored the image with copic markers along with the signed phrase which was stamped multiple times.

My A7 card base was matted with black and red card stock. Black card was used to mat my sign language panel and the included sentiments.

Finally I added my girl with glue gel to give her dimension.

I will be back tomorrow with her male counterpart but in the meantime please head on over to the PPC Facebook group and check out my teamies posts as well as all the other amazing work that the coloring community is sharing there.

Also go checkout Sweet Sentiment's website and other fab products!

 

Thanks for stopping by and if you love what you see please let me know in the comments!

Altenew Educators Certification - Magical Markers

 Good afternoon, after a week without power and extreme temperatures I'm ready for some cooler weather - shame the forecast doesn't agree!

My post today is my submission cards for my latest AECP class - Magical Markers by Sara Naumann - it's all about using alcohol markers but not just for coloring - there are so many techniques you can do with them.

My first card was designed using markers with a stencil:

I used the Weave builder stencil and 2 shades of grey marker. Coloring through the stencil I did the first 2 rows in a darker pen. I then flipped the stencil and used a lighter markers to color the first 2 rows on this side. I think it has given a tire track effect.

I matted a white A2 card base with black and grey cardstock, trimmed my stenciled piece down and matted this onto the same black card before adhering it to the left side of my card base.

Thanks was diecut twice once from white cardstock and once from black - I colored the white with the same lighter grey marker as the stenciled panel so it coordinated. I then attached this to the black to the back of the grey sentiment slightly off center giving me a shadow. When I adhered this to my card it stood out due to this shadow. 

To finished the card I stamped 'a million' underneath thanks. 

My next card uses techniques from lessons 3& 4

I started by stamping my feather and sentiment onto vellum. While this was drying I cut a piece of card stock slightly smaller than my A2 card base. I then scribbled a purple and bright pink directly onto my glass mat. I added isopropyl alcohol to the colors and picking them up with a splatter brush made splatters over my piece of card. I then edged this with ink by running the purple marker round the piece. I cut another piece of cardstock same length but slightly wider than my vellum and edged this in the same way.

Once dry I colored my feather using 2 alcohol markers, starting with light and adding depth with darker one. I then pounced my lighter marker over the coloring to give me texture. I adhered the vellum to the strip of card and then added this to my splattered piece. Using foam tape I attached this topper to my card base.

Finally I colored some white pearls with the darker purple marker and added these to the card.

My final card used a technique from Lesson 2 - coloring peel-offs with alcohol markers.

I cut a piece of white cardstock slightly smaller than my A2 card base. then using the wide tip of a blue marker I colored 4 strips of silver peel-offs. Once dry I laid these on the white card making a crossed border in one corner.

Beautiful Day is still my favorite stamp set. I stamped a flower and leaf outline and colored these with 3 shades of blue marker. They were then die cut with coordinating dies.

I arranged these on the bottom of my card near the crossed peel-offs. There was a lot of white space so I stamped directly onto the card with some of the included flower spray stamps and colored these with same color markers as main flower. I stamped the sentiment above these balancing my design.

The white card was added to a grey card base and the leaves were glued directly to the card and flower added with foam squares. 

Finally I colored a white pearl with a black marker and added this to the center of my diecut flower.

Thank you for taking time to read.

If you like what I have made please let me know in the comments.

Altenew products I used:

Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb Coverstock Purchase From: SSS | AZN | ALW	Beautiful Day Stamp & Die set Purchase From: ALW	Crisp Dye Ink - Jet Black Purchase From: SSS | ALW	Envelope Liner Die Set Purchase From: SSS | ALW
Pure White Crisp Embossing Powder Purchase From: ALW	Thanks Die Purchase From: SSS | ALW	Crisp Dye Ink - Magenta Purchase From: ALW	Crisp Dye Ink - Forest Glades Purchase From: SSS | ALW
Embossing Ink Purchase From: ALW	Silver Embossing Powder Purchase From: ALW	Build a Flower Fashion Monger Dahlia stamp and Die set Purchase From: ALW	Wild Fern Stamp Set Purchase From: ALW
Halftone Thanks Stamps Purchase From: ALW	Weave Builder Stencil Purchase From: ALW	Mini Delights - Strength Stamp & Die Purchase From: ALW	Vellum Translucent Paper Purchase From: ALW

Altenew Educators Certification Program - Impressive Heat Embossing

  Good afternoon! How can it be Sunday already? I wish time would slow down!

I'm back today with my latest submission for my AECP - This class was all about using heating embossing in different ways to stretch your stamps and crafting further.

My first card used the technique from class 2 but I also added elements from class 6, using clear embossing powder to give you a watermark effect - darkening the cardstock:

I started with 2 pieces of cardstock the same size, one green and one white. Using my MISTI I arranged by leaf stamps from the wild fern set long one side of the white card and stamped in green ink. I then, without moving the stamps, switched out the white card for the green piece and stamped the leaves in embossing ink. Turning the card 180 degrees and using embossing ink I stamped the leaves of the opposite side of the green card. I switched this out for the white card and stamped the leaves in green ink. This gave me 2 pieces of card stock both with leaves stamped down their long side. Using clear embossing powder I heat embossed the images on green card. which made the leaves look a darker shiny green.

I die cut the green piece with a rectangle die and when I laid this over the white card I could line up the leaves so they looked like complete leaves just in 2 different greens. These pieces were adhered together using wet glue so I had 'wiggle' time to make sure they were lined up correctly.

My next techniques was from lesson 6 I die cut the word 'Love' and heat embossed it layering the embossing ink and clear powder 4 times to give me a smooth raised die cut that looked like it was enameled. The mistake I made with this is I used clear embossing powder, I should have used white as the clear starts to yellow when you get multiple layers.

I worked out where I wanted my die cut and stamped the remainder of my sentiment directly on my green cardstock and heat embossed with with white powder.

I adhered my design onto a black A2 card base with foam tape to give dimension, lined up the Love with my stamped sentiment and added a few cream colored sequins to balance the card.

My second card for heat embossing techniques used lesson 4 - using embossing powder instead of colored ink for a layered stamp image:

I found this a much harder technique to do and did multiple attempts in multiple colors before I was happy with my results. 

The first struggle was finding embossing powders for my layers. I used build a flower Fashion Monger Dahlia which has 4 layers for the main flower and 2 for the center. 

I started with the solid layer in a pale pink color. the tick was to make sure each layer was fully cooled before adding the next. My second layer isn't as obvious on the photos but it was a slightly darker pink with glitter. The 3rd layer was a brighter pink.  I added my center in yellow after this, I chose to just do one of the center layers. My last layer was the outline of the flower. I initially tried gold for this but I lost the definition of the flower and the outline lines looked too thick so tried again with a pearlized white and liked this much better.

I only used one layer for my leaf, I used both gold and silver embossing powder on this and decided to go with the silver,

My flower and leaves were die cut ready to go on my card

I added a strip of glitter washi tape to the top of a landscape white A2 card base, This is actually nearer the base color of the flower but the camera shows it darker.

I matted a piece of grey cardstock over this and arranged my flower and leaves using both wet glue and foam tape in the corner of the card.

I cut my sentiment 4 times and used Magenta ink to color one of these. I stacked these together and adhered in place. 

I didn't have any embellishments in coordinating colors so I used clear gems and colored them with alcohol markers to match the pink in my sentiment.

Thank you for taking time to ready my very long post!!

Altenew products I used:

Envelope Liner Die Set Purchase From: SSS | ALW	Pure White Crisp Embossing Powder Purchase From: ALW	Crisp Dye Ink - Magenta Purchase From: ALW	Crisp Dye Ink - Forest Glades Purchase From: SSS | ALW
Embossing Ink Purchase From: ALW	Silver Embossing Powder Purchase From: ALW	Build a Flower Fashion Monger Dahlia stamp and Die set Purchase From: ALW	Wild Fern Stamp Set Purchase From: ALW