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

Quill power - Release day 2

This new release from Crafty Purple Frog is just so cute! I wanted to stretch these adorable hedgehog stamps and show that you can not only make adorable cards with them but you can also make things like this little trinket dish by pushing them into some air dry clay. This dish was so much fun to do! 

Crafty Purple Frog challenges you to use your supplies :D

  Yes that is right Crafty Purple Frog is running a challenge for you all :D I don't know about you but I love patterned paper but am not so good at using it 🙈 so this challenge was mainly to help us all use and make the most of our crafty stash. 

We want you to do what is called a 1 sheet wonder. For this challenge we have all used 6x6 papers but for a one sheet wonder any size of paper can be used. The idea is that you take one piece and cut it so that you can use every piece of the paper to make a range of cards or creations. If you want to add some more to the challenge you can try and use just one stamp set for your creations as well as the one sheet of paper but that is totally optional.

The challenge will run until the end of September so you have plenty of time to get creative. The prize is a £25 voucher to use in the Crafty Purple Frog shop on anything you want 😃

I often find if I am in a creativity slump then limiting the supplies I use and taking myself out of my comfort zone can really help me. A one sheet wonder lets you stretch your supplies by getting a lot of cards made in one go. You can find lots of examples of one sheet wonders online so you do not have to use the same ones that I have but you can also copy it if you like.

I have made 6 cards from my 1 sheet of 6x6 design paper. As well as the design paper I used 1 A4 piece of card stock and one A4 piece of white card. Then I picked just 1 stamp set to do all the images and sentiments with. I choose "Elephant of Surprise" by Heffy Doodle as it has a good mix of different images and a range of sentiments.

I started by picking my paper and then matched my Copics to it. I picked a First Editions paper pack called Making Memories  for my paper and the following copics to match it:

Then I stamped out a load of the images from the stamp set and coloured them up.

Next I worked out what way I wanted to cut my 6x6 sheet. I am sure this is probably available elsewhere but I just made up my cuts as I went and this is what I ended up with.

For the pink card stock I cut most of the pieces to be 1/4 of an inch larger than each piece of patterned paper and then used some of the left over pieces for the sentiments and as little extras.

Here are how my 6 cards turned out:

Card 1

Card 2:

Card 3:

Card 4:

Card 5:

Card 6:

If you don't have any patterned paper you can always stamp or stencil a 6x6 piece of paper instead to be able to join in. You can join using the InLinkz below, using the #craftypurplefrogchallenge or by adding you picture to the Crafty Purple Frog facebook group album so there are many ways you can get involved. I will pick one random winner for the £25 voucher.

I am entering these cards for the following challenges:

Creatalicious - Anything Goes

Crafty Animals - Anything animal goes

Love to craft - Anything Goes

Crafty Sentiments - Anything goes

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog. I would love it if you would follow me and leave me a link to your blog so I can follow you back

Huge hugs

Amy xx