Altenew Educator Certification Program – Level One Challenge

Hello everyone and thank you for joining me.  I’m excited to share the next step on my journey through this amazing program.  I have completed all of the level one classes and have created a project before moving onto level two.  

I was challenged to pick three of the classes from the ten level one classes that I wanted to “spotlight” in an assigned project.  The project I was assigned was to create two sets of cards, one masculine, and one feminine.  I’m super excited about what I have created because I pushed myself out of the types of cards I usually make.  

The three classes that I chose to focus on were All About Layering 1 & 2, Let It Shine, and Celebration:  Stencil Techniques.  I also tried to focus on limiting my supplies for my projects.  There are some ways to achieve the same looks without some of the products.  I will try to point these out along the way.  So grab your favorite drink and settle in!  I have lots of photos and a video to share with you. 

Packaging for the cards

Masculine-themed set

Feminine-themed set

I will have close up photos of the acetate boxes and the cards.  I would like to tell you about the products I used on each of the sets.  Some as you can see was used on both sets.  

Masculine Packaging:  Golden Dots Washi Tape, Simple Alpha Die Set, Gold Foil Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Acetate Box, Glue Tape

Feminine Packaging:  Build-A-Flower: Begonia, Sweet Dreams Oval Set, Green Fields Oval Set, Gold Foil Cardstock, Black Cardstock, Glue Tape

Masculine:  Happy Dreams, Cube Cover Die, Antique Gold Metallic Ink Spray, Sequins – Satin Gold,  Antique Gold Crisp Embossing Powder, Enchanted Gold Pigment Ink, Embossing Ink, Jet Black Ink Spray, Obsidian Black Pigment Ink, Glue Tape, Black cardstock, Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock, Foam Tape, Heat Tool, Foam Ink Blender (to apply embossing ink), Spellbinders die-cutting machine and Anti-static powder bag.

Feminine:  Forever and Always, Build-A-Flower: Begonia, Sweet Dreams Oval Set, Green Fields Oval Set, Cube Cover Die, Antique Gold Metallic Ink Spray, Sequins – Satin Gold,  Antique Gold Crisp Embossing Powder, Enchanted Gold Pigment Ink, Embossing Ink, Jet Black Ink Spray, Obsidian Black Pigment Ink, Glue Tape, Black cardstock, Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock, Foam Tape, Heat Tool, Foam Ink Blender (to apply embossing ink), Spellbinders die-cutting machine and Anti-static powder bag.

I started by spraying a piece of Neenah 80# Solar White cardstock with the Antique Gold Metallic Spray.  

I then die cut this piece of paper with the cube cover die and sprayed the second piece of Neenah with the same metallic spray.  This way when you look through the shaker window you still see the beautiful shimmer you get with this spray.  Before starting to compile the shaker card I tapped some of the Jet Black metallic spray onto my card front. I will be honest and share with you the first time I made this card I put the acetate for the shaker on the wrong side!  Oh goodness!! I laid the die cut piece with the gold side down and placed adhesive in the lines on the back.  I attached the piece of acetate, correctly this time and then layered two layers of foam tape.  I like a lot of shake in my shaker cards!!  I dumped in a healthy amount of the beautiful gold sequins.  I would estimate about 1 1/2 tablespoons of sequins and then put a piece of cardstock on the back to seal in the sequins.  I then attached to a portrait style card base.  I went through many possibilities for decorating the front of the card and settled with simply the sentiment strip.  I used both the gold and black metallic sprays on this to tie it together with the shaker.  I love the simplicity of the card and the complexity the shaker component adds to the card. 

The second card I created is one of my favorites and I plan to make more as thank you cards.  I think this design can lend itself to many types of cards.  I sprayed another background with the metallic gold spray and then stamped the leaf image from Happy Dreams in the Enchanted Gold Pigment Ink.  I love the beautiful shiny tone-on-tone you achieve with these two products. I then stamped the sentiment in Obsidian Black Pigment ink and “fussy” cut it out.  I popped it up with some foam tape.  The background panel was also popped up with foam tape.  My cards in the masculine set could not have cards in the acetate packaging with them due to all the dimension I added to the cards.  

This card was another of my absolute favorites and not something I would normally create.  I just let my creativity go when I was creating these cards.  In order to create my background, I used the cube cover die to create a template from copy paper.  I held the copy paper down on my white card panel and applied embossing ink with my foam blending tool.  I was not particular about getting perfect coverage.  I wanted a more distressed look.  I embossed with the Antique Gold embossing powder.  I then splattered the background with the Jet Black metallic spray.  I used the Happy Dreams stamp set again, choosing a different sentiment this time.  I used the Obsidian Black ink and then clear embossing powder to emboss the sentiment.  Black embossing powder and I have a complicated relationship and I find I can achieve the same look without the frustration.  Something very cool happened when I heated the sentiment, it started to bubble some of the previous embossing and I LOVED it!!  I finished my statement with a strip that I used foam tape to add some dimension and cut the ends at an angle to add some interest.  While this is a very simple card, you can add great little touches to add that WOW factor.  I fell in love with this sentiment and look forward to using it again in the future. 

 

I followed the same steps for this card as I did in the card above.  I was so happy with the look I achieved with the distressed embossing powder when I heated the sentiment.  I decided to stamp it directly onto the card so I could use the whole image.  I took more care when using the foam tool to apply the embossing ink/powder.  This gave me less of a distressed look than the other card. 

This rounded out my masculine cards and I am excited to share with you the feminine cards I created. 

For these two cards, I used two different backgrounds, spraying one with gold before dry embossing the paper with the die in my die-cutting machine. With the embossing in place, I put the mask over the paper like a puzzle piece and used the Enchanted Gold Pigment ink to add beautiful gold detail.  

Dry embossed using my Spellbinders die-cutting machine

 

Fits just like a puzzle piece

Removed the mask to show you the progress

All done!  Love the shiny dimension you achieve!!

I hope seeing different ways to use your cover dies and gets more mileage out of them creatively.  In my video, I share a few additional card fronts that I created.  

These classes are available for anyone to take with a price point of around $9.  Sometimes you will see them come in bundles or deals on the price.  I think it is important to mention that even though you think you have a certain skill, these classes open up your creativity and inspire new ideas.  They are for all levels of crafters.  Try something new or revisit something you know how to do, but may want new ideas.  

Thank you for sharing time with me today and checking out my creations.  I had so much fun creating these sets of cards and learning how to use my supplies in ways I may not typically use them.  I look forward to sharing more of my creations with you as I continue on my journey.