Altenew Educators Certification Program - Color Your Day

 Good afternoon! it's hot here which does nothing for my health! It's Mollie's birthday today, how is she now 12! time is passing too quickly 😢

I'm back with my AECP class submissions today and I have loved watching Therese Calvird's lesson about different ways to mix up and add color to your projects.

My first card used techniques from the first lesson, using colors inspired by a photo, as I do every year, I took a bunch of photos of the flowers in our yard and this one was a favorite:

I love the vibrancy of the yellow it is such a happy color. I used both the color and the texture in this photo for the inspiration for my card:

I stamped the flowers and leaves from Dahlia Blossoms and colored them with watercolor markers, blending out the color with water.  I know the flower centers wouldn't normally be brown but I used it to pick up all the colors in the photo. 

While my images were drying I cut a piece of grey cardstock to A2 size and using my scoreboard scored horizontal lines every 1/4 of an inch. This was then cut slightly narrower than A2 and added to a top folding A2 card base.

The scored lines were inspired by the siding on our house which can be seen in the photo.

After fussy cutting them, I played around with arrangement of my flowers, once I knew where I was placing them I added the sentiment to my card before adhering them in place with both wet glue and foam squares for dimension.

Finally I arranged some yellow enamel dots on my card.

For my next card I used a color wheel to choose my colors. I learnt from Therese the many ways to use a color wheel. The one I used is a real basic one:

 (I have since bought one with more detail for future coloring.) 

So my card used opposing colors of pink and blue green. I went out of my comfort zone with this card I didn't stick with my usual clean look but added lots of bright color to my card:

Using Majestic Bloom layering stamps I stamped the flower layers multiple times in 3 shades of pink.  A small amount of yellow was used in the flower centers. Then using rectangle nesting dies I cut out the center of my stamped card.

 I chose a dark teal colored card stock as my opposite color and matted an A2 card base with this. The outer part of my stamped card was then matted over this, leaving a hole in the middle. Using the teal card and the next size up nesting die I cut another rectangle and matted my smaller stamped piece onto this. This was then added back, covering up the hole and matching up the flowers. 

I cut a sentiment mat from the teal card and used some coordinating pink for the love word.

Finally a few glitter gems in coordinating color were added.

My last card again was to take me out of my comfort zone. I purchase Altenew's watercolor pans and brushes a while ago but have only really used them to add background color. For this card I decided to use them as an image coloring medium as taught in lesson 5.

I stamped Paint a Flower Tulips in embossing ink and then heat embossed the image with white embossing powder.

I then painted the image using the wet on wet technique, this allows colors to blend independently I loved how the 2 colors I used on the tulips gave them a realistic look.

Once dry I added a wash around the flower arrangement to make the white embossing powder pop!

I also added some splatters of a copper iridescent watercolor - again out of my clean comfort zone. 

Using a copper embossing powder I heat embossed my sentiment onto water color card and using 2 paint colors I had used on my flowers did an ombre effect. This was then cut with an angle at each end.

My image was adhered to my card base with a foam panel to give dimension. My sentiment was added so it hung off the edge of my card.

I think I will be using my paints a lot more now!

Thank you for taking time to read my post!

Altenew products I used:

Paint a Flower - Tulips Purchase From: ALW	Dahlia Blossoms Stamp Set Purchase From: ALW	Majestic Bloom Stamp Set Purchase From: ALW	Crisp Dye Ink - Chamomile Purchase From: ALW
Pure White Crisp Embossing Powder Purchase From: ALW	Artist Watercolor brushes bundle Purchase From: ALW	Heartfelt Sentiments Purchase From: SSS | ALW	Crisp Dye Ink - Fuchsia Purchase From: ALW
Crisp Dye Ink - Magenta Purchase From: ALW	Crisp Dye Ink - Baby Pink Purchase From: SSS | ALW	Artists Watercolor 24 Pan set Purchase From: ALW	Embossing Ink Purchase From: ALW

CAS Boutique Cards

Good Morning! I'm having a lazy day today, the heat is just too much to get busy!

My post today is all about Clean and Simple Boutique Cards - the third course in my Altenew Educator Certification Program. I have made 3 cards that are all CAS:

My first card was from lesson one simple styling, I've covered this by doing a single rose in the center of my card and a very simple sentiment:

I used Altenew's Painted Rose stamp set, stamping the layers of the rose with Rose Quartz, Puffy Heart and Purple Wine inks from the Rose Petal Mini Cube Set. I stamped the leaves with Frayed Leaf and then loosely drew the outline of them with a Faber Castell Pitt pen. Lastly I used a sentiment from Altenew Heartfelt Sentiments and stamped it with jet black ink.

 For my next card I used lesson 2 - Stamped backgrounds:

For this card I used one of the stamps from Wild Fern Stamp Set and stamped it multiple times on my card in  Just Green Ink. I then mixed some watercolor marker ink with water and, using a paint brush, made splatters cover the card front.

The sentiment, again from the Wild fern Stamp Set, was stamped in versamark ink and I heat embossed this with white embossing powder onto a strip of black card. This was then adhered on to my card.

My last card was my favorite technique and one I wasn't aware of. I added foiling:

This is a great technique if you don't have alternate ways of foiling. I do have a foil press but can't use that with my stamps! 

I used Altenew's Dahlia Blossoms, picked one of the layers of both the smaller and large flower and stamped this in Buttercream Ink. Then came the magic. I used my antistatic bag across my card and stamped the outline of the flowers with Stayzon ink. I heat embossed this with clear embossing powder. I had to repeat this step 3 times to get a thick enough outline for the foil to stick to. Following the embossing I laid Minc foil over the images and sent it through a laminator which had been heating up for a while. Once my card had cooled I removed the foil sheet and was left with a gorgeous rose pink foiled outline on my dahlias.

I went on to stamp the leaves from the Dahlia stamp set and some more from Altenew's beautiful Day stamp set. 

As I loved the foiling so much I had to do more! I chose a sentiment die from my stash. I die cut this in both black and white. I covered the white version in Stayzon ink and dipped it into my embossing ink. Again I repeated this 2 more times then covered it with foil and ran it through my laminator and it worked! I adhered this to the black diecut, slightly offsetting it so I had a black shadow to my foiled sentiment. This was then glued to my card.

This was my favorite lesson from the whole Clean and Simple Boutique Card course and I will be using frequently!!

Thanks for checking out my post - I hope it gave you some inspiration and if you like what you see please leave me some love in the comment section

All About Layering 2

Good evening! It's been a warm one today which doesn't help my pain but hey cool air in the house and a well stocked craft room helps me get by!

Tonight's post is to showcase the work I have done for the Altenew Educators Certification Program and is the 2nd class I have taken - All about Layering 2.

My first card uses the gorgeous Peony Bouquet stamp set. I love this set, It's an older one but the stamps layered together make some stunning flowers:

What I Did:

I started the card with white cardstock and using the palest of the ink collections I stamped the Peony outline and leaves in random positions.

Then using Nicole's technique of stamping, I stamped the 4 layers in the beautiful purple soft colors and layered the coordinating leaves.

As I don't own the dies for this set (yet!) I fussy cut the flower and leaves leaving a white edge.

I decided where the flower was going to be positioned on my background and then used the same ink as the flower outline to stamp my sentiment.

My background was then adhered to a 4/14 x 51/2 inch card base and my flower and leaves positioned with foam tape.

What I Used:

Stamps: Flowers: Altenew - Peony Bouquet

             Sentiment: Altenew - Dahlia Blossoms

Stamping Card: Neenah Solar White

Ink: Flower: Altenew - Sugar Plum Oval Set; Pale Mauve, Amethyst, Grape Agate & Plum

        Leaves: Altenew - Green Fields Mini Cubes; Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades & Evergreen

        Sentiment: Altenew - Plum Oval

Card Base: Simon Says Stamp Fog Cardstock

My next card from this class uses the Big World stamp and die set. I bought this set as I feel it is great for masculine themed cards:

What I Did:

I again started with a piece of white stamping cardstock. I chose the 'adventure awaits' sentiment and using my MISTI for positioning I stamped it multiple times diagonally to give me a background.

I stamped the globe using Nicole's techniques - So much easier than trying to figure out positioning!

I then die cut the globe. I die cut the stand 3 times in white scratch card and once in matt silver mirror cardstock. these were stacked and glued together to give dimension.

I adhered a piece of black card to my background using foam tape. Then added my globe stand and globe (making sure I got it the right way up!) I then stamped my sentiment on white stamping card and adhered this across my globe.

My design was then glued to a top opening black card base.

What I Used:

Stamps: Altenew - Big World

Stamping Card: Neenah Solar White

Ink: Altenew - Green fields Mini Cubes Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades & Black; Ocean Waves & Misty Morning (background).

Mirror card: Crafter's Companion Winter Wonderland

Black Cardstock: Creative Crafting World - Lynda Chapman

Thank you for stopping by and please let me know in the comments if you like what you see