Final Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP) Assignment

Hello All! 

I hope this post finds you healthy, happy, safe, and of course crafting!  In today's post I am sharing my level three final project for my Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP).  This took me  taken a lot longer that I expected, but you know life…   For my final project, I decided to make a card box.  The challenge to myself was to incorporate an Altenew stamp set with my card box.   I recently purchased Altenew’s Wild and Free stamp set, love, love, love it.   In my level three classes one of the inspiration projects used this stamp set.   It is such a fun and whimsical stamp set.   I love the open lines for colouring or just leaving as outlined image.   This stamp set was simply perfect for my project.   I hope you enjoy it as much I do. 

Making the Box: Instead of make the traditional cardstock box or buying a box from the craft store.  I made my box from scratch using my Laser Printer.   Last year I purchased a Glowforge Pro (GF) but never really did anything with it.  Just recently I started devoting more time to learning how to use it.    For this project I used some 1/8" Maple Wood (12” x 20” sheet), Adobe Illustrator (AI) and a box creating application.  I was able to create my box and engrave some of the images from the Wild and Free stamp set on my box.   

For the AI part: I designed my box template in the Box Design application to be 5” x 7” with a 2” depth and saved the design as a PDF file.    For the stamped images, I stamped the images with Altenew’s Obsidian Black Pigment Ink on to some white cardstock.  I left the images uncoloured.   Once the images were completely dried (pigment takes a little longer than dye ink to dry), I scanned the image into my computer and saved the image as an SVG file.  

 

I opened both the box template and the stamped image in AI.  I sized and positioned the image on the box sides panels.   The size of your image will depend on how large your box will be.    After I sized my image on the box, I added the “Just A Note” using a font in my computer font library.   To be able to print (engrave) text in the Glowforge (because I did not purchase their premium program at $50/month-NOT!) I had to change my text to a path outline.   I changed my text to an outline, grouped the text, the image, the box panels, and saved it in AI and as an SVG file.   I saved the project in AI just in case I need to make some changes or adjustments.      

Now we are ready to print (engrave and cut): I opened the SVG file up in the Glowforge application.  I used Glowforge proof grade materials, so I did not have to put in any unknown material settings.  If you use materials that they (Glowforge) have tested, the setting for that material is preset and guaranteed to perform as expected.  If I did not use proof grade material, I would have to tell the Glowforge what type of material I'm using, how fast to cut, how much power to use, how many lines per inch to print, and how many times to perform the task.  The wood is covered with masking paper to avoid or sometimes it just decreases the scorch marks from the Laser.  Below you can see the Glowforge engraving the one of the box panels, the template engraved and cut (or so I thought...lol).  You can see the scorch marks on the finish engraving and cutting.  Unfortunately, there was some "OPERATOR ERROR" on this one.  You can see the GF looked like it was cutting out the box template; however, it did not.  I for some reason had changed the settings (still scratching my head on that one...lol).  So, yep, I had to do the whole thing all over (bummer).  After the box is engraved and cut, I removed the masking paper. As you can see, the masking paper was scotched not the finished wood.  This one came out okay, I'm pretty pleased with it.  I put the box together with some strong wood glue, clamped some places to hold the pressure, and and let it sit overnight until the glue dried.  

                                       

The pieces should just fall out but they did not, so I had to re-engrave and re-cut the project (sad face).

Note: You may notice the images look like they are white.  The colour is actually the masking tape.  It looked so nice and made the flowers and butterfly standout so well, I decided not to weed those pieces out.  I was going to attempt to colour them the same colours as the butterfly on the cards, but I didn’t want to mess the box up and have to start over again.

The cards:  I really loved the butterfly in the Wild andFree stamp set.  I used the butterfly with some of the sentiments from the stamp set to make a couple of note cards.   My note cards are standard A2 or 4 ¼”x 5 ½”.  I coloured the butterflies using Faber Castell Pencils, Gamsol, and a blending stump.  On the purple butterfly I just added some dots with a black pen.   For the Bluish-Green Butterfly I used some Altenew Sea Sure enamel dots in various sizes.   I added some Wink-of-Stella on both the butterflies to give a little bit of shimmer.   Note: I used small embellishments that I know would go through the U.S. Post Office Pitney Bowles machine for metering.

The envelopes:  I used my We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board to make four envelopes.  I love white cards, so I created coordinating white envelopes for each card.  I tied them together by stamping the butterfly again and the large graphic text from the stamp set on the bottom left corners.   I used the bottom left corner so there is plenty of room for the standard "to" and "from" information, as well as the postage area.   For a different option I created plain colour matching envelopes.  

Here are some photos of the complete project:

 

Well party people this is my stop with the Altenew Educator Certification Program, but certainly not with using their amazing products.   I highly recommend the AECP if you can.  It is a good experience, and you will take away some valuable information to help you through out your craft journey.   Even if you don’t intend to teach, the classes are really good quality and highly informative.  

Til’ next time, Joyce