AECP level 1 final challenge for level 1 - Part 1

 

Hello you lovely people :)

Thank you so much for taking the time to come and see my blog. I am so happy to say that I am now getting around to completing my final challenge for the Altenew Educators Certification Program (AECP). This is going to be a long blog so I am going to split it to show 2 cards from each set in this post and my next post will show the final 2 cards and the packaging.

For my final challenge I have been asked to create a his (masculine) and a hers (feminine) set of cards. Each set should have 4-6 cards in the set. I could pick the theme and as I think we can all do with sending more cards to let people know we are thinking of them these days I have gone for a general encouragement theme for my sets.

I needed to select 3 components from all of the amazing classes I did in level 1. I have used many of the techniques from the classes but the main 3 I decided to focus on are:

- Let it shine I mean who doesn't love a bit of sparkle and shine. Plus some sparkle just makes you smile and I wanted to show that sparkle can work for a masculine card not just feminine ones .

- Irresistible inking techniques I really enjoyed this class and found that some of the tips about using my ink pads in different ways were so useful and make the most of my crafting ink stash.

- Clean and simple boutique cards I am a clean and simple style crafter generally but some times felt that some of my creations were too simple, so this class was great for me. I got a lot of ideas for leaving the negative space to make the main focal point really pop.

To keep both sets should have a similar and cohesive theme but not be replicas of each other. To do this I decided to limit the number of stamp set I used and stick to 5 coloured inks for each set. For each design I did one in the colours I have picked for the feminine set and then changed up the layout and the colours to be the colours I have picked for the masculine set.

I also was challenged to create the packaging for each set and then to use something recycled within the sets.

So with all that in mind I decided to first pick my colours.

TOP TIP: I like to swatch all of my inks and this is a brilliant way to be able to workout which inks will look good together. I like to use 3 or 5 colours to mean that I have some variation in a set but not too much that they won't look like a cohesive set.

For the feminine set I went for these 5

- Puffy Heart

- Rose Quartz

-Lavender Fields

- Deep Iris

- Citrus Burst

For the masculine set I went for the following inks:

- Dew Drops

- Aqualicious

-Galactic Stream

- Sand Dunes

- Rocky Shore

This little video shows the process for making the mushroom cards that I did as my first cards for each set.

For the card in the masculine set I decided to not use the masking technique and instead to put the circle in the centre of the card. I used the same tip of lining up my mushrooms before I stuck them down. This time I like how it looked with the 3 mushrooms so used all 3.

I also put the nuvo drops in a more ordered way around the edge of the circle rather than the scatter on the feminine card version.

This is the finished masculine version and I used the following inks:

- Sand Dunes for the base colour of the mushrooms

- Rocky Shore for the accents on the mushrooms

- Dew Drops for the circle

- Jet Black for the text

Card number 2 in each set I wanted to focus just on the Half tone circles stamp set. I made a rough plan of where I wanted my dots to fall across my cards. Again I wanted the masculine and feminine versions to look similar but not be the same. I did a bit of practicing on scrap paper for how the circles might work using the different sizes and colours of inks before getting another two 6'x4' card blanks out to do my final cards on. I started by stamping the thanks sentiment in the set and stamping it and embossing it in gold embossing powder. Then I die cut the thanks using the coordinating die set.

For the feminine card I used The following four ink colours:

- Puffy Heart

-Lavender Fields

- Deep Iris

-Citrus Burst

I did a jumbled line of the circles across the centre of the card roughly a third of the way up from the bottom. I mixed the sizes of the dots and the colours of the inks making sure I only used a little of my darkest colour (Deep Iris) so it did not overpower the design.

I used the Altenew fine liner to again define the edges of the card. then stuck the "Thanks" sentiment so that it looks like the largest yellow circle is highlighting it.

For the masculine version I used all 5 of the ink colours. This time I focused the circles on the right hand side of the card, getting fainter and more spread out as they got more to the left of the card. I stamped some of the circles so that they go over the edge of the card giving a more random look and some more interest to the layout.

Then I added the "Thanks" sentiment in the bottom right corner. Then I finished it by again edging the card with an Altenew fine liner but I Stopped the line where the circles went over the edge of the card.

I hope you have enjoyed these first cards for each set. Please see my next post to see the last 2 cards for each set and see what they all look like together :)

Huge hugs to you all

Amy xx

AECP level 1 final challenge for level 1 - Part 2

 

Hello again you lovely people :)

Thank you so much for taking the time to come and see my blog. I am so happy to say that I am now getting around to completing my final challenge for the Altenew Educators Certification Program (AECP). This is a long blog so I have split it into two, showing 2 cards from each set in each post so to see the first two cards from each set please see my previous post and in this post I will also show the packaging I created for each set.

To recap. For my final challenge I have been asked to....

- Create a his (masculine) and a hers (feminine) set of cards. Each set should have 4-6 cards in the set.

- I needed to select 3 components from all of the amazing classes I did in level 1 to influence my card sets.

- Both sets should have a similar and cohesive theme but not be replicas of each other.

- Create the packaging for each set.

- Use something recycled within the sets.

Moving onto card number 3 for both sets, I decided to use one of the mini stamps and went for raining hearts. This video shows you how I made the cards.

For the feminine card version I used Puffy Heart and Rose Quartz inks and scattered the nuvo drops rather than having them evenly lined up. I also changed up the layout.

For the last card in each set I created my own background using the Love you so mush stamp set. I started by stamping the largest mushrooms. I did my backgrounds in the lightest ink colours so for the masculine set I used Sand Dunes and the feminine one I used Rose Quartz.

Then added in some of the smaller mushrooms.

Before filling in with the smallest heart stamps.

TOP TIP: When creating a background pattern start with your largest stamps first and don't be afraid to go over the edges of your card.

After that I created a two tone rectangle for my sentiment to sit on. For the feminine one I used Rose Quartz and then Puffy heart inks. For the masculine one I used Dew Drops and then Aqualicious ink.

To get this effect I took the ink pads direct to the card swiping them across the card where I wanted them.

My sentiments for this card I used the thanks from the halftone circles stamp set, which I stamped in Jet black and then die cut. I combined the thanks with a couple of the sentiments from the Love you so mush stamp set. I just the "so" part of the "love you so" sentiment so I took my scissors to the sentiment and cut the "so" off making it easy to use on its own. However if you do not want to cut your stamps apart then you can use some washi tape to mask off the parts of the sentiment you do not want to stamp or wipe the ink off of the part of the stamp you don't want.

Once I knew what I wanted for the sentiment and had all my pieces for my cards done I again used my tip of placing all of the pieces to see which way I thought they looked best before sticking them down.

Once I was happy with my layout I moved it to the stamp platform and stamped my newly formed "So mush" sentiment where I wanted it.

Next I fixed the 2 tone rectangle to the card and edged the rectangle and the card with the Altenew fine liner.

To finish the cards I stuck the "Thanks!" sentiment onto the two tone rectangles

For the feminine version I put the two tone rectangle in the centre of the card and made it a portrait layout rather than a landscape one.

So my final sets look like this.

I think keeping the same colours and stamp sets has made the sets both look nice and cohesive. It also shows how just few stamp sets can be used in many different ways.

My masculine set:

And my feminine set:

Now for the packaging I have made a little video to show how I brought these together recycling packaging from my Altenew stamps and a cardboard box :)

I have really enjoyed this challenge and trying to think outside of the box for the designs and packaging. I hope you like what I have created and feel inspired. I have learned so much from doing this Level 1 and am looking forward to hopefully taking on level 2. If you would like to have a go at the the AECP yourself then you can find out all the details HERE.

Huge hugs to you all

Amy xx