Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP) – Beautiful Details

Alright – the Beautiful Details class for me was the most intimidating and challenging class in the Altenew Educator Certification Program to date. I’m not a really good artist and I don’t sketch or use coloured pencils and this class has a lot of that in there. I’ve been on a vellum kick as of late, so I opted to give this card a try with Vellum.

I started off with Altenew’s Flower Garden stamp set and stamped the largest flower along with a few leaves using Tsukineko’s Versamark Ink on a piece of Simon Says Stamp Vellum. Then I used Brutus Monroe’s Icicle Alabaster Embossing Powder and my WOW Dual Speed Heat Tool to heat emboss the images. I made sure that my heat tool was really hot before applying it to the vellum to shorten the time it takes to melt the powder and to avoid warping of the vellum.

Then I cut around the images to make them easier to manage one at a time.

I started off with Altenew’s Artist Markers in Frayed Leaf and Bamboo to colour the greenery. I flipped my image over to colour on the back of the vellum as colouring on the front with the heat embossing could damage the tips of the markers. Starting off with Frayed Leaf, I coloured the center of the leaf and flicked the tip of the marker outwards. Then I coloured the edges and flicked slightly inwards. This gave pretty good coverage of the leaf with the lightest colour.

Then I grabbed the Bamboo marker, and did the same, except I didn’t flick out as far with the colour. Then I went back over the same area with the Frayed Leaf to help to blend the colours better – this helps to add some depth to the leaf.

Then I grabbed my Staedler Watercolor Pencils, as interestingly enough I don’t have any regular coloured pencils….so…you know…use what you’ve got! I grabbed a pencil that was the closest in colour to the ink I had already put down and then essentially did almost the exact same thing as I did with the markers. I used a very light hand and focused most of the pencil colour along the centers vein of the leaves as well as the base of the leaf, flicking upwards.

I repeated this process on all of the leaves and then moved on to the flower.

For the flower, I wanted a bright colour, so I grabbed the Rouge and Crimson markers. I did the very same technique as I did on the leaves…I started with a more all over colouring of the Rouge on the flower.

Then I went in with the Crimson marker and flicked the tip along the outlines of the flower, focusing more colour in the center and along the base of the flower.

Then I blended the colours back out using the Rouge marker. Then I grabbed the coloured pencil colour that most closely matched the colours of the flower and added some more detail to the sections of the flower. I focused on the center and the sections of the flower that should naturally be darker like the undersides of the petals as well as sections of petals that are tucked beneath another petal. I continued adding a light touch of colour until I felt like the flower had enough detail.

Then I fussy cut the flower out as well as all of the leaves. I cut them out just around the edge of the embossing.

I wanted a bit of detail on the background without it being distracting, so I grabbed Altenew’s Dotted Swirls Debossing Cover Die and ran it through my die cutting machine. It’s a very detailed yet subtle image and perfect for my background. I trimmed the panel down to approximately 5.25×4 inches and adhered it to an A2 sized card base of Neenah Solar White Cardstock.

Then I arranged the flowers and leaves on the panel until I was satisfied with the arrangement. Then I adhered the arrangement to the panel using some clear vellum tape runner. I only applied a very small amount of the adhesive to the center of the flower to allow the edges to be loose for some dimension. Then I added the adhesive to just the base of the leaves to allow them to ‘float’ and add some more dimension.

Then I heat embossed “Thinking of You” from Altenew’s Thinking of You stamp set using Brutus Monroe’s White Alabaster Embossing Powder on Simon Says Stamp’s Black Cardstock. I cut the sentiment strip down and then adhered it onto the bottom portion of the card using Simon Says Stamp Big Momma Foam Tape.

Then I added a few of Studio Katia’s Majestic 3mm Sequins to brighten the card up and add a bit of shine. Then I stamped one of the smaller flowers on the corresponding envelope using Altenew’s Crisp Dye Ink in Rouge.

I think the card came out really nice. It’s definitely a technique I plan to practice more often. There are also some other techniques in this class that I plan on trying out as the results are absolutely beautiful!

Altenew Stamps/Dies:

– Flower Garden

– Thinking of You

–Dotted Swirls Debossing Cover Die

 

Inks/Pencils/Markers :

– Altenew Artist Markers – Crimson, Rouge, Frayed Leaf, Bamboo

– Altenew Crisp Dye Ink – Rouge

– Staedler Watercolor Pencils

– Tsukineko’s Versamark Ink

 

Other Supplies:

– Neenah Solar White cardstock (SSS)

–Simon Says Stamp’s Black Cardstock.

– Studio Katia’s Majestic 3mm Sequins

– Ranger’s Glossy Accents (SSS)

–Simon Says Stamp Vellum

–Brutus Monroe’s Icicle Embossing Powder

–Brutus Monroe’s White Alabaster Embossing Powder

– Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue (SSS)

–Simon Says Stamp Big Momma Foam Tape (SSS)

 

Tools:

– Crystal Katana Jewel Picker (SSS)

– My Sweet Petunia’s MISTI Stamping Tool (SSS)

– Tim Holtz Mini Comfort Trimmer (SSS)

– Simon Says Stamp’s Acrylic Blocks (SSS)

– Simon Says Stamp’s Grid Transparency (SSS)

– WOW Dual Speed Heat Tool (SSS)

–Spellbinders Platinum 6 Die Cutting Machine

– Anti-Static Powder Bag

–Tom Holtz Tonic Glass Media Mat

– Therm-O-Web Purple Tape

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