Month: March 2025

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AECP – Color Your Day

Howdy!!  Welcome Back!!

This set of classes was Color Your Day.  Lots of interesting ways to add color to your projects.

For today’s card, I used the February Craft Your Life Monthly Subscription Kit – Flower Arch.  The kit has stamps, dies, stencils and an embossing folder.  This whole kit was amazing and I could not wait to use it.

Using the Stampwheel 2.0, I stamped the floral twice on Hammermill cardstock in order color it with alcohol markers. I did it twice in case I made a mistake.

Using my Ohuhu alcohol markers, I colored the floral using the markers shown.  Then cut out the image with the coordinating die.

I sprayed 110 lb. white cardstock with some water and then embossed it with the Flower Arch embossing folder from the kit.

After the cardstock dried, I began ink blending the stone areas with Distress Oxide Inks in Pumice Stone, Gathered Twigs and Hickory Smoke using Altenew blending brushes and the stencil from the kit.

I kept adding color until it looked like stone.

I cut the sculpted upper piece from silver cardstock and aged it a bit with Distress Black Soot Ink. Then blended some blue ink onto  a small, scrap piece of cardstock to create a bit of sky.

I then fussy cut the arch, glued on the silver piece and then glued the entire piece onto the embossed card base.

On a scrap piece of kraft cardstock, I embossed the door section and inked it with the same Distress inks listed earlier.  I fussy cut it and glued it onto the card base as well.

The detail in this embossing folder is crazy. There is a lion’s head door knocker on the door!!

Not sure of the placement for the floral element, I moved the flower around several times before making a choice.  Added foam tape and adhered the floral element to the card base, trimming off the excess.

I used several of the cut off leaves to fill in some spots to make it look fuller against the stone wall.  Then adhered the entire piece to an A2 card base and a sentiment from the One-Go: Solid Sentiments Strips Press Plate.

The details in the embossing folder are just amazing.

This card was so much fun to create.  I look forward to finding new ways to use this floral stamp as well as this gorgeous embossing folder.  The kit also included beautiful door dies I haven’t even tried yet.

Thank you for stopping by.  Hope to see you again soon.

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AECP – Beautiful Details

Welcome back.  I am so glad you are here.

The next class in my AECP journey is Beautiful Details.

The classes were very informative and taught wonderful techniques.  One class in particular was so intriguing I began searching for a retired stamp set just to be able to try the technique.  I was able to get the stamp set!  The technique was so cool.  It used parts of layering stamps but not as they were intended.

You colored the stamp with watercolor markers.

Stamped the image on a scrap piece of paper, then using 2nd and 3rd generation stamping create the most intriguing flowers.  Then using a micron pen you sketch a flower.

This was fascinating and inspiring.

For today’s card I decided to use my Altenew Press Plate Blossoming Bouquet as the class is Beautiful Details and nothing is more detailed than a press plate.  This is only the second time I have used a press plate, it was so much fun and the details on these plates are amazing.

The ink was Altenew Obsidian Black Ink, I let it dry completely before I began coloring.

I with the stencils that were in the bundle, and using Altenew blending brushes, I colored the flowers using Distress Inks in Villainous Potion, Wilted Violet, and Picked Raspberry.

The leaves were colored with Altenew Fresh Dye Inks in Oak Moss, Swamp Green and Match Tea.

I wanted there to be some organic elements to this card since we are looking for details.  I cut a piece of kraft cardstock down and sprayed it with water.  I wadded it up and then opened it up to dry.  I wanted a lot of wrinkles and ridges so I did not smooth it out and then left it overnight to dry.

I made my base layer using the Essential Textures: Rustic Burlap Press Plate from Altenew and Distress Ink – Brushed Corduroy. After ink blending the edges with Distress Ink Vintage Photo I ink splattered with Altenew’s Carbon Black Artist Gouache.  As you can see I made a messy mistake with a huge glob on the upper left corner on my base later.  I will cover that with my leaf later.

I decided not to use any foam tape on this card and only use glue and super sticky tape.  I found which parts of the wrinkled kraft layer would touch the base layer and added sticky tape to those areas.  I carefully added it to the base layer being careful to not smooth out the beautiful wrinkles.

The same technique was used to adhere the floral piece.

Altenew’s One-Go: Solid Sentiment Strips Press Plate was amazing for creating the sentiment strip along with Obsidian Black Ink.  It took a couple passes to get it as solid as I wanted, it but it came out beautifully and cuts a bunch at one time.  I used a black marker to color the edges of the strip to hide the white cardstock.

I attached it only using glue under the floral piece and a tiny bit on the edge of the wrinkled kraft paper.  No foam under the strip.

I took a pair of sharp scissors and ran them along the edge of the burlap press plate layer to roughen the edges as they looked too crisp for the organic look I was hoping for.

To finish it off I added three iridescent gems to bring a little shine.

I brightened the center of the flower with a little bit of white watercolor pencil.  The messy, black glob is hidden under the leaf in the top right corner (in case you were wondering).  I hope you liked today’s card and hope to see you again soon.