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

Altenew Vintage Flowers

Good afternoon, Hot and humid here but nice with the air on inside!

Around 6 weeks ago I was sent an email asking if I was interested in taking part in the Altenew Educator Certification Program. Of course I was interested I LOVE Altenew stamps and their inks are amazing. I sent in my application and was accepted 😊. Then came my craft room make over so I put the classes on hold for a couple of weeks 

Now I'm fully moved in I have started the first class which is All About Layering with the lovely Nicole Picadura. Of course this focuses on lessons for Altenew's layered stamps and gives some basic stamping techniques and demonstrates ways to line up the stamps. 

My first card uses the Vintage Flowers stamp set, the flowers have either 3-4 layers to them and do look so realistic when stamped:

I used a few techniques making this card. lining up the flowers, masking off the central flower to stamp the others making it look even more dimensional and using accent flowers to fill in my design. The sentiment was from another Altenew set but fit perfectly in the space left for it.

What I used:

Floral Stamps: Altenew Vintage Flowers

Sentiment: Altenew Build a Flower Ranunculus

Stamping Card: Neenah Solar white 110lb

Pink inks: Altenew Red Cosmos Mini Cubes

Green Inks: Altenew Green Fields Mini Cubes

Yellow Inks: Altenew Summer Afternoon Mini Cubes

Card Base: Simon Says Stamp Fog Cardstock

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you like what you see and come back soon!

Some friends are one of a kind

Good Morning, the heat continues, the pool in the back yard is getting lots of use, from Mollie playing in it with her friends to us cooling off after work outs or just sitting in it to beat the heat.

My card today is a 'just because'  for a good friend. I don't have many friends but cherish the ones I do so when I'm trying out new stamps I love to send them to people who mean the most to me.

This card used the Snap dragon flower stamps from Altenew:

I stamped the image using Altenew inks, I love these layering stamps they are so quick to use and the effect they leave is amazing. Once I had stamped all the layers of the flower I then used a stamp set from Simon Says Stamp called Say it all friend. It has some great sentiments that say just what you need! The sentiment was stamped using Versafine ink as this leaves a really good crisp image for small sentiments.

I matted a 5x7 inch card base with black card and added my image topper. I didn't want anything to distract from the image and words so nothing else was added. I posted the card so am waiting to post this post for when I know it has been received.

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