Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP) – Color Your Day (2)

So…level 2 of the Altenew Educator Certification Program focuses a lot on Color. The Color Your Day class is one fine example of that. There are a lot of different components of this class, but one lesson focuses on challenging yourself to use a different medium than you’re used to. I typically use ink…dye ink to be more specific. I do have watercolor paints, as well as alcohol markers, and coloured pencils…but I always tend to fall into dye inks. So…I opted to challenge myself and break out my Altenew’s Metallic Watercolor Set set to make a card.

I started off with some Black Bristol paper from Bee Paper measuring approximately 4×5.25 inches. Metallic watercolor looks great on anything but it really pops on black paper. I wasn’t planning to saturate the paper so I could’ve also used black cardstock, but I opted for Bristol paper as it tends to hold up to water a bit better than regular cardstock. Below are my Swatches of Altenew’s Metallic Watercolor Set on black bristol.

I prepped my paper using an Anti-Static Powder Bag. I grabbed Altenew’s Modern Poinsettia Stamp set and lined up the poinsettia using my MISTI. I could’ve also used a stamping block but I wanted to be able to re-stamp easily as I often find I need to double stamp when using a watermark/embossing ink to ensure a clean image.

Then I inked up my stamp using Versamark and heat embossed the poinsettia image using Brutus Monroe’s Fairy Dust Embossing powder and my WOW Dual Speed Heat Tool.

Then I grabbed my Altenew Metallic Watercolor Set and my Altenew Fine tip Waterbrush and got to work. I started with Garnet in the center and moved on to Copper on the next later of petals and then Enchanted Gold on the outer most petals. I wanted the colours to lighten as I spanned outwards.

Altenew’s Enchanted Gold Pigment Ink matches the metallic watercolour with the same name quite well, so I opted to use it as the vase to heat emboss my sentiment instead of Versamark. This way, any spots I miss with the powder will still show up as a bright gold colour. I used the ‘warmest wishes’ sentiment from the same Modern Poinsettia Stamp set as I just LOVE the font. Then I heat embossed using Brutus Monroe’s Gilded Embossing Powder. I trimmed the sentiment strip down and then backed it using Simon Says Stamp’s Gold Glitter Cardstock to help it stand out against the black panel.

I adhered it to my card panel on the bottom right corner using Simon Says Stamp’s Big Momma roll Foam Tape for just a bit of dimension.

I felt the card needed a bit more pop as there was a lot of black. So I used my waterbrush to flick on some splatter of the metallic paint colours I used on the poinsettia – Garnet, Copper and Enchanted Gold. I also flicked some Nuvo Aqua Shimmer pen in Midas Touch for a bit of glitter.

Then I adhered my panel to an A2 sized card base of Simon Says Stamp’s Cardstock in Black. I paired the card with a gold shimmer envelope to coordinate and my card was done! I truly Love the way the colours pop on the black paper. I’m definitely going to be using the metallic watercolor palette again and again!