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I’m back today with a card with some goodies I received from Scrapbook.com. So, thank you again for those! I wanted to do a card for the Seize your Birthday but, the challenge was no stamping! A hard one for me! Also, Hero Arts was all about squares. Yet again, something outside my comfort zone. However, I embraced it, and it turned out nicely.
First, I blocked off one square at a time with tape and ink blended with distress oxide. Then, I used the Yay stencil on top of the square. I made sure to rotate it so that it was like a diamond (another form of a square) of yays. Then, I did 2 layers of celebrate with white cardstock and 1 last year with green and silver.
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After a lot of work and trial and error, I’ve got my new overhead camera rig set up! Yay! That meant I could finally color this card again so that I could submit it to the challenge(s) I had in mind for it! Now let’s get onto the fun!
I stamped the Sweetest Snowman in copic friendly black ink. I colored the shadows of the snowman at first with a light purple and then covered it up with 2 light shades of gray to blend it all together. I then colored the hat in a purple and the scarf in blues. I colored the branches in browns and nose in the gray to keep it neutral except the purple and blue for the color challenge. Next, I colored what I like to call a blizzardy sky.
To make the blizzardy sky blend better I splattered white paint on it. Before I did that, I made the paint looser by spraying a shimmer spray on it. This gave it the natural shine that snow has to the paint. I fussy cut the snowman out and cut 2 die cuts from the Rolling Hills. I glued the snowman in between the 2 layers and glued the background behind those 3 layers. I then glued all of those layers to the card base.
And there y’all have it! A sweetest snowman friendship card. I did want to share with y’all that Scrapbook.com is having an awesome free Pinkfresh Studio cover die with $25 purchase AND an organization sale right now! I highly suggest you check that out, preferably through my link 😉 Thanks for reading and/or watching! Have a blessed day and happy crafting!
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Hey y’all! I’m back with my last card for AECP Level 2! What a fun journey it’s been. Today I’m bringing you a card from the Masking Unleashed course. I knew when I saw this technique with freezer paper and watercolor that I just had to try it! So here goes nothing!
I started this off with doing rough sketches with my stamps to figure out what shapes I wanted. Then I started making masks with sticky notes to prevent certain images from crossing. Since this was only a sketch, I figured sticky notes were better suited than masking paper. Once I was happy with the sketch, I transferred it to sturdier paper. I then cut it out and used it to trace onto freezer paper that I had precut. I then decided to cut on the lines of my sketch rather than slightly around so that I could use the inner piece again. However, this required me to cut further into the freezer paper a second time because I wanted an outer edge of the flowers. If I were to do it again, I probably would just cut the way I want it first and not try to save the inside.
Onto the fun part, painting! To start this off I painted the inside with just water. Then, I applied several different brighter colors. Next, I let this dry overnight. I then added loose black watercolor and then added more potent black watercolor paint throughout the piece. After this had fully dried, I decided every galaxy needs a little shimmer. After I finished spraying it, I attempted to splatter white acrylic paint. However, I did not realize how wet I had made my background and the paint began to spread. I quickly wiped it up with a paper towel. Reapplied some black. I did not want those black areas to not have shimmer though. So, I sprayed my paint brush with shimmer spray and then dipped in black and applied it to the paper. Once this was dry, I added the white paint splatters. Next, I used my heat gun to remove the freezer paper.
Now, we have this huge blob on the paper. Don’t worry, it’s not done. I get out my embossing powder goodies and go to work with my originally stamping design. I made sure to use my sticky notes I had cut out earlier to prevent lines from crossing. I then added my sentiment and backed the card to a matching color base.
I really like how it can blend in slightly depending on the angle. I think that’s cool because it’s almost like a constellation in the sky.
I love this card and the way this turned out! Thank you so much for reading!
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Hey y’all, I’m back with another AECP level 2 course! I’m hoping to have my final one up before the end of the weekend. This card was about impressive heat embossing techniques. I’ll be honest, heat embossing is probably my least favorite simply because it’s not something I’m good at. It’s something that I’ve watched tons of videos on and tried several times and I just struggle. So, I was definitely open to trying it again. I called this card a win because the embossing and the die cut lined up. Lol. Anyways, onto the card!
Here I decided to stamp, emboss, and die cut this beautiful frame in gold. Shortly after that the Altenew Inspiration Challenge for August came out. I colored over the frame with R35 and decided to try and make the gold look brown with a marker. I don’t recommend that. If I were you, I’d just get some brown ink out, stamp the image with my Misti, restamp over the brown with embossing ink, and add a clear embossing powder on top. Just don’t forget the anti-static powder! It makes a big difference. (I usually forget it). However, coloring over it did give a brassy look which is cool too. It was just very time consuming.
I brought back some Magical Marker techniques for this card. I decided to do the petals of the flower with Y911. I did the center of the flower with a layer of 911 topped with Y932. I know that green wasn’t in the strips of colors for this challenge but, it’s in the inspo photo. So, I kept the stem and leaves green in this photo! I did 2 colors of green, G702, G715, and intermixed them.
Besides this color combo being unique and awesome, I love the dimensions I achieved in this card! I die cut and glued 3 layers of frames to the bottom of the embossed frame. I colored the edges of the frame with my R35 to match the front. I stamped hello on a strip of paper and on the far right I glued 4 layers on small squares under it so that it laid flat on the frame. To tie everything in I applied direct ink to paper on the envelope flap with Espresso ink.
Thank you so much for checking out this card on my blog! I appreciate it and I hope you have a blessed day.
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Hi Y’all! I’m back with another card for AECP. This was a fun class that really pushed me out of my comfort zone. I’m usually one to shy away from bright colors. I’ve never been good at matching. So, I typically go for one color with a gray or white. So today I went big. I did orange, pink, purple, and a touch of green.
I think one of the important things that I took from this class is that it’s okay to create a card that doesn’t fit into your normal style. In fact, it’s probably good for you to push the boundaries every once in a while! I hope you enjoyed my card that yes, I also made before the hospital as I did with this one.
I die cut the stem and flower. I then layer stamped the columbine. Next, I colored the stem with a copic marker. I used my transparency sheet to help me place where I wanted to have hello darling at with my Mini Misti. To finish things off I used glitter drops throughout the card.
Products Used:
Before we get to the products I used, did you know Scrapbook Pal is having a sale?! 15% off their clearance until 8/5/22 11:59 MST. Use code CLEAR15
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Hey Y’all! I’m back with another AECP card. Rather than packing for our overnight hospital stay for our little one, I put together this card. Priorities. Because who doesn’t enjoy throwing things in a bag last minute?! Lol. In all reality, this card helped me focus on something else. Isn’t that the beauty of art though??
This was probably my favorite course I’ve taken. This really pushed me to try something new, watercolor pencils! I loved the detail I was able to acheive with this flower! I would pencil in a few details and expand the color with water. With this remember, less is more. After 2 or 3 rounds, I decided to do direct brush to pencil to give a few shadows that extra pop. I think that made a huge difference! Then, I took ink directly from the pencil again but, with extra water and splattered it. I did this until I was happy with the results. For the final touch I stamped congrats on your accomplishments sentiment.
My color choices were inspired by the current My Favorite Things Color Challenge. I also really wanted to do watercolor because I just found out that I was accepted to join the Design team for Happy Little Stampers starting next month for their watercolor team! Super exciting! Thank you for reading this post and happy crafting! I appreciate each and every comment!
Before we get to the products I used, did you know Altenew is offering free shipping right now?! Use code HAPPY8AF for orders over $29 until August 31st.
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Hey y’all! I’m back with a late night post! Surprise! I made my first YouTube video! I’d love if you checked it out! I really wanted to get this video up ASAP because the falala die is free until tomorrow night (supply permitting)! How awesome is that?!
Don’t have time to watch the full version? I have an abridged version for the smaller tag on my Instagram! Have a busy life and watching a video just isn’t in the cards at this moment? Pin this to come back to it or keep reading for a quick explanation.
I die cut a gift tag out in a dark blue that has a hint of green in it. I ink blended the winter cottages with Metalliac Pigment ink. I did the accents in a gold glitter gel. I die cut the falala from red shimmer paper and backed it with 2 white die cuts from scraps. I stamped the Merry Christmas sentiment and backed it with another scrap piece of paper. I glued both pieces onto the gift tag and added a red and gold ribbon to match.
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My oldest starts Kindergarten on Monday and I am NOT ready y’all! I felt like a school themed card with cheerful colors would be the kind of therapy I needed. I channeled what I learned In the Mood for Color AECP Level 2 through the Altenew Academy.
Let me tell y’all, the process of making this card was exactly how I’m feeling about this school thing! I made my wave (if y’all have the actual name for the squiggle, let me know please) going into the crayon box. It went super quick until I realized I wanted it larger. Takes a lot more work trying to blend out a harsh line than it did making the original piece. I decided I needed it a little more pzazz, so I covered the white parts of the paper and sprayed water on the Distress Oxide ink. I loved it! Then, I tried to silver emboss my sentiment on. I could not get it to stamp clearly with the powder. I needed a way to cover up the clear ink. So, I covered it up with pink embossing powder. I tried stamping on that. That didn’t work either. Then, I forgot I don’t have great handwriting and tried writing on the pink embossing. Finally, I settled on embossing pink pearl again, stamping the sentiment on white paper, and fussy cutting it.
I really wanted this card to feel bright and freeing. After all, life is messy but beautiful. It’s so easy to forget that. Out came the paint brush, distress oxides, and water. I splattered various colors onto the card. To tie this feeling in, I decided to get a distress oxide sheet I made months ago out of my stash and cut it to put under the card onto the card base.
At the end of the day, our cards are art. They have feelings. This class taught me to embrace showing those feelings on the card.
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Hello y’all! I hope y’all are having a great day! I’m back with another project for the AECP Level 2! I’m excited to share with y’all this birthday card I made with the Beyond Basic Backgrounds class in mind. Throughout making this course I was very drawn to the vellum accents Lydia Evans would use! I knew that I had to figure out a way to incorporate that into a card!
I decided for my beyond basic background that a watercolor background would be fun! I used Altenew dye inks to achieve this look. I stamped my flower and water colored it with inks as well. To give the flower some extra pzazz, I applied a shimmer with my glitter pen. Then, I fussy cut it. I felt like it needed something to make the flower pop though. So I decided to outline various parts in black.
To add my finishing touch, I gold embossed Happy Birthday onto the vellum and adhered it to the card.
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Hello again! I had some time to sneak off to my craft room recently and work on an AECP course! In this course I was inspired to try alcohol markers on vellum! How fun is that?! I knew that I had to try this technique but, color choices are probably the hardest part for me when it comes to designing a card. I’m thankful for challenges like the Altenew Inspiration Challenge that gives clear direction on what colors to use! They have a new challenge every month! Once I chose my colors, I used a dabbing motion to for the petals of the flower and did ‘normal’ strokes on the leaves and stems.
I then did direct ink to paper with Polar Bear ink from Altenew and cut that strip down and stamped thanks on it. Before adhering these elements on the card, I put polar bear ink down on my glass surface and mixed it with shimmer spray. I then splattered the background lightly with that color mixture.
The dreaded gluing of vellum! Here’s a tip (a messy tip but, it’s a tip): Apply liquid glue onto your finger and spread it around the entire back of the vellum! This way you can’t see it when you adhere it to your project. Make sure you move quickly though! Liquid glue dries quicker than you’d think.
