Altenew Educator Certification Program – Level Three – Virtual Workshop Final
Hello everyone and thank you so much for joining me today. I’m excited to share photos from my virtual workshop with everyone today.
In the educator program when you enter level three you need to complete five Altenew Academy classes (not already completed in level one or two) and you need to host a workshop. Before COVID-19, educators would hold a workshop in their local community. Due to our current health crisis, we can host a virtual workshop using Zoom or some other online platform. This worked out really well for me as I don’t have a lot of crafty friends in my “real life”.
To begin this process I had to decide what I wanted to create for cards for my workshop. My creative process is one that usually flows naturally. I do not have a lot of planning in my process. I pull out items that “speak to me” at the moment and the process evolves to create a card. With me, many times that process evolves to the same supplies being utilized again and again. We all have our favorites, don’t we? The other thing that was important to me was to try to minimize supplies and/or pick supplies that could be substituted easily. I will list below what inspired the cards that I created. Some ranged from Altenew Academy classes and others were inspired by my extra die-cuts on my desk. Who knew having a cluttered workspace could lead to a beautiful project!
The next step was to get these approved by the supervisors, Erum, and Virginia. Once these cards were approved, I started working on my PDF of the workshop. (Click the link for your copy). This is great to have as it helps participants prepare specific sizes of card stock before the workshop. It also lets the participants know what we are creating. And, since we ran out of time, it also allows the participants to complete all the cards of my vision.
The next step for the workshop is to find participants! I had one participant but needed to have 4-6 participants. In the virtual world, where do you find participants? Facebook! On Facebook in the Altenew Fan Group, I posted sneak peeks of my cards, a basic supply list, and the date/time of the workshop. I was so nervous! The next morning when I got up I had all of my participants, actually extra participants! I was so excited. In all honesty, through this process, I teetered back and forth between nervousness and excitement, lol! At this point, I sent out a full supply list to my participants so they could order any supplies they didn’t have that they wanted to purchase from Altenew. If participants couldn’t get all the supplies, substitutions were made.
On the Monday before the class, I sent out the PDF to participants so they could get their card stock cut and supplies together. Then, waited for the big day!!
VIRTUAL WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS
From left to right: My workspace, Nicole, Penny, Sande
Mandi, Susan, Bridget (me), Andrea
Erum and Virginia
Card #1
This is the card that was inspired by my “extra” pile. I started with a mug, added a clear container and now I have those plus a drawer! I’m starting to make more cards out of it. Can’t waste all those beautiful images. My background inspired this card. I was making another card and had excess metallic shimmer spray on my stamp block. I NEVER waste this. I always pull out a blank card front and splatter until it is all gone. If I have a lot I may do multiple card fronts. I wanted to step this card up (it’s stepped up from card #5 below). I think a very easy way to step up a card is to add dimension. Dimension always adds a special touch to a card. The love die-cut was a leftover from a class I had done with Jen.
Altenew Academy Classes: Easy Die-Cutting, Let It Shine, For The Guys, and Clean and Simple Boutique Cards
ANDREA
MANDI
PENNY
SANDE
SUSAN
Card #2
Both this card and Card #3 were inspired by the same thing. I created two cards for level three inspired by the lovely Lydia in Stunningly Simple Watercolor Techniques. I took the idea of ink smooshing for this card. On my inspiration cards I did not leave much white space, something I TRIED to correct on this card.
Altenew Academy Classes: Let It Shine, and Stunningly Simple Watercolor
Inspiration cards
Card for a virtual workshop
ANDREA
MANDI
PENNY
SANDE
SUSAN
Card #3
This card was inspired by the same set of cards I made (above). I decided to use my favorite (I think all-time favorite) color family to create an ombre effect. Lydia created an ombre effect with watercolors in the academy class, I just changed the medium. The white lines in my opinion really make the colors POP!
Altenew Academy Classes: Easy Ink Blending, For the Guys, Polychromatic, and Impressive Heat Embossing
ANDREA
MANDI
PENNY
SANDE
SUSAN
Originally, I had planned to create four cards. You know what they say about best-laid plans! We were having so much fun chatting and working along we only completed three out of the four cards. A few of my participants completed the fourth card on their own and they were kind enough to share their creations with me. Andrea actually created two!
Card #4
For this particular card, I had two sources of inspiration. I was inspired by another academy class that I used for my level three classes. Watercolor basics and beyond with Jen inspired me to pull out my 36 color water pan set. If you are looking to get better with this set, check out this academy class as it is phenomenal! I really would have liked to do a no-line watercolor technique, but I knew there would not be time to complete that. I landed on white heat embossed watercolor as I feel this is the cheater method to no-line watercolor. The white gives you a similar look in my opinion. Watercolor with white heat embossing is great practice for no-line watercolor.
The other source of inspiration was again my extra pile. I saw this beautiful die-cut of the Burlap Texture Die. I love the texture it adds to the card.
Altenew Academy Classes: Let It Shine, Watercolor Basics and Beyond, and Stunningly Simple Watercolor
ANDREA
MANDI
PENNY
SANDE
In the PDF, I made a total of five cards. I wanted to make sure I was prepared in case we finished these four cards. The fifth, and final card I created was a take on the first card we made in the workshop. It was a simpler version of the card that was one-layer. The major difference is the dimension that is added to the previous card by die-cutting the main floral image. Andrea completed this card as well.
Altenew Academy Classes: Let It Shine, Clean and Simple Boutique Cards, and For the Guys
ANDREA
I have so many people I want to thank. I want to thank Altenew, not only for all they have put into my education through this program but for creating this program. This program has added so much to my life. I have met new friends, learned new techniques, and it is helping me get through my personal tragedy.
Thank you to Erum, Nicole, and Virginia for taking time out of your very busy schedules to share this time with me. Especially to Erum who stayed up until 4 a.m. with us! All of you are an inspiration to me with your creativity. It was wonderful to get to know you better.
I want to thank my participants. I could not have done this without all of you! It was wonderful getting to know everyone and share our crafty time together. It was so lovely to share a few hours chatting and crafting.
Going into this process I was so excited (and nervous) to do the virtual workshop. I couldn’t wait to craft and chat. In the end, my favorite part was seeing all of the projects everyone created. I love how people followed the inspiration and then took it to the next level. That is one of the great things about this program. Seeing the creativity of others inspires me. These ladies that were so generous with their resources (time and money) were all amazing and extremely talented. I was inspired by all the wonderful changes made to my cards, from color combinations to embellishments to layout. I found myself thinking more than once “I have to try it that way.”
I am also extremely honored that even though we ran out of time, many of the participants created the additional cards in the PDF.
And now, I thank you, my reader. Thank you for sharing this journey with me. And, for reading my long posts! Sometimes there is just so much to say and share.
I look forward to the next steps in my crafty journey and I look forward to sharing it all with you.
Until next time, stay safe and happy crafting!
