In the mood for colour?

Hello you lovely people :D It is time for me to share my next makes for the Altenew Educator  Certification Program (AECP) level 2. If you have not seen you can do a whole load of great classes online with Altenew in their Academy and if you want to take it even further then you can join up for the AECP yourself find out how HERE.

For these makes I have taken inspiration from the In the mood for color class. I LOVE colour and this class goes into the feelings evocated by various colours. I made a lot of cards around this class so there will be more posts but I am showing this one for my AECP entry because I rarely use yellow (I am not sure why??) and this is my first time using one of the Altenew Layering dies.

The layering daffodil die set just seemed to be begging to be used for this yellow inspired card. I wanted to use some of the great yellow inks from Altenew to make the daffodils so I took some ink pads direct to a piece of white card let them dry for a moment before using the dies in the set to cut the various parts. The die set has a handy layering guide so you can work out which shades of the colours you want each part to be. I got this die set free with a magazine many years ago but they have a new daffodil dies set which is available to buy and has more parts to it HERE. 

For this card I used the following inks:

Leaves and stems - Limeade, Lime

Flowers - Citrus burst, Mango smoothie, Honey Drizzle, Sunkissed

I just love the details in these dies and the way they give the flowers depth. I wanted this to be quite a simple card so that yellow can really sing. Yellow is such a happy colour that it just had to be teamed with a thank you sentiment from the Painted Greetings stamp set. I used two of the yellow inks to give it an ombre look. To finish it off I added in the gems for a bit of sparkle.

I hope this card makes you feel happy when you look at it and it has certainly inspired me to use yellow more.

I am going to enter this card for the following challenges:

Crafting Happiness - Anything Goes

Get Creative - Springtime

Pammies Inky Pinkies - Anything Goes

Use your Stuff - Spring/ Easter (I have had these dies for many years!)

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

Impressive Heat Embossing

I am such a fan of heat embossing and so was really excited for this class called Impressive heat embossing. I had never used embossing powders with layered stamps and this was so much fun. I have so many ideas now for my other layering stamps :)

I used the Garden Delights stamp set and its coordinating die set for this card.  I wanted to try and get outside of my comfort zone with this class so I decided to keep it black and white and just add a highlight with the gold.

I also used an idea for another lesson in the class and used clear embossing powder to give a tone on tone effects across the back of the card. I think this give a great touch of texture and added interest.

The sentiment is embossed in gold to stand out and is from the painted greetings stamps set. I coloured a black edge around the card to frame it and you can see how the ink resist happened as I waited to colour the edges after I did the clear embossing. I like the way this adds a little extra detail when you look closely. 

I am going to enter this card for the following challenges:

Creative Fingers - Anything Goes

Patties Creations - Anything Goes

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

Painting with inks and sprays

I am here with my next card for the Altenew AECP level 2. This is my fourth class for level 2 and I am loving getting back into the AECP again. This call is called Creative Watercolor Media class. I saw this and thought it was going to be all about watercolour paints.....I was very wrong! This is such a great class getting you to really stretch your crafty stash and see the potential of what you have. For this card I have combined some of the lessons.

I really like the graphic nature of the Wallpaper Art stamps and wanted to use the technique I had learnt from this class about painting with my Crisp dye inks to give it a bit more of a watercolour delicate feel to it. I stamped the flower onto water colour paper and then embossed it with Gold Wow! embossing powder. Then I started painting with Pink Diamond crisp dye ink adding in more shade and depth with Fuchsia crisp dye ink. I love the way this painting with inks turned out. I also gold embossed one of the leaf sprays from the same stamp set and then cut it up to give me smaller branches of leaves to spread across behind the flower. 

For the background I had so much fun. I had never thought of using the metallic shimmer sprays like water colours before. I cut a piece of water colour card stock to size then covered it in water. I took my Dusk metallic shimmer Ink spray and sprayed it on the background. I wasn't that happy with the way it looked so I added more water and brushed it spreading it like paint. Then I sprayed it again. I left that to dry before taking the spray top off and flicking the tube over the paper which gave me some even darker dots and I think a lot more depth to the back ground. I just love the way the whole background sparkles. I think I NEED more of these sprays!

I am going to enter this card for the following challenges:

Avenue 613 - Anything goes with optional twist April showers (I think the ink splattering looks like rain)

Lil patch of crafty friends - Anything Goes

Alphabet Challenge - B is for Blooms

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

I appreciate you

 I am back again with my card for my third class for the Altenew AECP level 2. This card is from the Color your day class. This class has made me buy a colour wheel, which I think is going to be a great addition to my creative process. I have known about the colour wheel but never thought about having one by my side to be able to just quickly refer to. I absolutely LOVE colour and am a big visual person swatching all my stash so I can see how it is going to look together before I start making. This class was so much fun and I feel like I learnt a lot.

For my card I wanted to use a stamp set which is quite new to me the Altenew Garden Delights stamp set. I have to say that this set is beautiful. It was a dream to line up and I really like the little sentiments that come with it.

I wanted to use the complimentary colours for this creation while adding in the black to make them pop. I used the 70,20,10 theory where I had red for the 70, green for the 20 and black for the 10.

For the flowers I used the following Altenew Crisp dye inks:

Pastel Sunrise, Canyon Clay and Burnt Red. They are all in the Martian Terrain ink set.

The leaves are Frayed Leaf and forest Glades which are both in the Green Fields ink set.

I used the coordinating dies to cut all my leaves and flowers out.

I hand drew the black frame in and added the black centres for the flowers with Nuvo Black Board vintage drops. For a bit more red I used the splatters in the Inky Bouquet stamp set. 

To finish this card off I cut a strip of black card and embossed the sentiment from the Garden Delights set in white super fine Wow! embossing powder.

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Crafting Happiness - Anything Goes

Through the Craft room Door -  Anything Goes

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog.

Huge hugs

Amy xx

Bleaching with water and it is beautiful!

 

I am back with my next card for the Altenew AECP level 2. 

For this card I took my inspiration from the Beyond Basic Backgrounds class. I have to say I have been crafting for many years now but I absolutely loved this class! There were so many tips and techniques that I could learn from and I had so much fun making and playing with the different techniques.

But my favourite was the idea of bleaching with water. Why oh why have I not done this before?? 

I just LOVE the way it stretches your stamps as well as giving this subtle but beautiful result. I am also so impressed with how well it has kept the fine detail that is in the Altenew Quaint Blooms stamp set. I was so sure it was going to bleed over the edges and give a sort of fuzzy look. For the record you can get that look if you add more water to your stamp. It gives a different but equally beautiful look.

For this card I first blended Blueprint sketch, mermaid lagoon and salvaged patina distress oxide inks all over my piece of watercolour card stock. Then using my stamping platform I lined up the Quaint blooms stamp where I wanted it and then used a sponge to apply water to the stamp. I stamped with the water about 4 times to get these images to appear this clearly. Once I had that beautiful background I did not want to cover it up too much so added the Painted Encouragement stamp set which I embossed with Gold super fine Wow! embossing powder. Before finishing it off with a few sparkly gems.

I hope you can try this technique out for yourself and I can really recommend taking the class to find out all of the other hints and techniques :D

I am entering this card for the following challenges:

Through the craft room door - Anything Goes

Pammies inky pinkies - Anything Goes

Thank you so much for visiting my blog

Huge hugs

Amy xx

 

Beautiful Details

I am so happy to be able to say that I have made it through Level 1 of the Altenew AECP and so now am moving onto level 2. There are so many amazing classes to work through for this level 2 certificate I wasn't sure where I wanted to start so I have gone in alphabetical order :D 

So my first creation for you is from all my learning in the brilliant Beautiful Details class. If you have not seen Altenew have a whole range of great online craft classes where you can learn so many tips and techniques to use in your crafting. You can find them all HERE and there are some free ones if you want to see what the classes are like so what have you got to lose??

I had so much fun making this card. I was so inspired by the idea of mixing up the media I use to colour that I went all in and for this card I have used Copics, Faber-Castell pencils and Altenew watercolours. I am not sure why I haven't combined the mediums I use before now.

I am so happy with the depth and detail that this had added to this beautiful Altenew Tulip stamp set.

I stamped my images on watercolour paper as I new I wanted to use the Altenew watercolour essentials set. I wanted to try and keep some of that watercolour lose look so I did some second generation stamping with Versafine Smokey gray ink to give a really light outline for a no line colouring look.

I started by using water colours to give a base and some depth. I followed that with using some pencils to add some more texture and detail. To finish the colouring and add even more depth I also added some copics into the mix. Lastly I added the splatters with the watercolours and then the sentiment that is in the Tulip stamp set.

I hope this helps inspire you to mix up your colouring and add in details to make your stamped images your own and give that truly handmade touch to your projects. I have no doubt that I will be using the many techniques I learnt in this class over and over again. I am totally inspired.

I am going to also enter this card for the following challenges:

Addicted to stamps - Make your mark

Penny's paper crafty challenge - Anything goes

Crafty Gals challenge - Add a flower

Huge hugs to you all 

Amy xx