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

Masking Unleashed

Hello,

And welcome back.  I am nearly finished with my Level 2 Altenew Educator Certification Program courses.  This card is for the Masking Unleashed class.  While I have done a lot of masking over my 9 years of crafting, I have to say, this class renewed the joy and magic of the masking technique.  The demonstration card is so very inspiring and beautiful.  I will say this card or rather the technique was a bit challenging, but if you take your time the results are amazing. 

I will not give the details on how to the make card for a couple of reasons.  One, I think your results will come out better if you hear the instructions and watch the person who taught the class and two, because it is a class.  You can take the class individually or you can apply for the Altenew Educator Certification Program.  The class is not expensive and the information you will receive will stick with you throughout your crafting years.  Click here for more information on this class other Altenew products.

This is my second attempt at this card.  My first attempt was okay, but I was not so happy with it and felt I could do a lot better.  I let it go for a couple of days, then gave it another try.  This one turned out beautiful!  Love, love, love it!  The card looks complicated, but it is not.  It is time-consuming; it took me about an hour and half to complete the card, but the result was worth it.  The finished card size 5 ½” x 4 ¼” (A2).   I think I am going to keep this one for myself…lol

I did not have the die that was used in the demonstration, so I used something similar.  Of course, you know I have ordered the die, it was just too pretty to pass up.   Many of the other products used to make this care you should have on hand if you have been crafting for a while or if you are just getting started the products such as vellum, acrylic paint, masking tape, and blending tool can be found at most major craft stores and many privately own craft stores.   I use Altenew’s Sand Dune and Rocky Shore Crisp Dye Ink Mini Cube to ink the card stock.   See the list Altenew products below

 

Coffee Break Crisp Dye Ink Mini Cube Set 

Leafy Wreath Die 

Leafy Garland Die 

Script Words Die Set 

Thanks for stopping by, see you next time. 

Joyce

 

Color Your Day!

***Having problems with Blogger, for this post I am unable to add links*** 

Hello my crafty people,

I am posting a card for the Altenew Academy Educator Certification Program’s “Color Your Day” class.

My style of card making is very simple, less is better and faster…lol.   For this card I used Altenew 2 x 3” Mini Delight: Bold Bloom Stamp and Die Bundle.  This stamp set contains 1 floral image of a set of joined posies with foliage and 2 sentiments.  This stamp and die bundle would be great for your stamping arsenal!  A simple elegant floral image with a bold statement depending on how you use it.  I know, I say that about a lot of the stamps…lol, but it is so true.  There are just some stamp sets that can do so many things, this will be one of those. 

This card is a little unique in that I was just practicing using my Polychromos pencils and Copic Markers.  I liked the outcome so much, I decided to use the image on a card.  Since this class was about colour, a yellow/gold card certainly fits the bill. 

The base for this card is a non-traditional size of 3 5/8” (w) x 5 1/8” (l).  I came up with size based on the size of the pierced scalloped frame die.  I used Momento Tuxedo Black ink to stamp the floral image.  The image was coloured first with Copic Markers:  Y19, 17, 15, and 13 and for the shadow I used W3, W1, W00.  To add a little detail, I used the pencils.  This was my first attempt with the Faber Castell Polychromos Pencils…love, love, love.  I chose the following colours: Yellows 105, 106, 107, 108, Grey 273, 274, and Green 168, 174.   I used Fun Foam to lift the yellow mat up from the base.  I also popped the floral image up with foam tape.  The sentiment is from another 2 x 3” Altenew mini stamp set called Mini Branch.  For the inside I used Obsidian Pigment ink to stamp the image again in the bottom corner and left it un-coloured. 

Joyce

In the Mood for Color

Hello and welcome back to my blog.  Today, I am sharing my In the Mood for Color card for my Altenew Educator Certification class.  In this class we went over different colours and the moods that are commonly associated with them.  My favorite colour is Red.  For me, the colour red represents life, love, faith, hope, and strength.  Most often we associate the colour red with love, like on Valentine’s Day or a relationship Anniversaries (marriage, dating).  Either way you cannot go wrong with red. 

My card was totally cased from class project video.  I absolutely loved this card when I saw it!  I know the card was meant for me to do because I had everything the instructor used to make her card…lol.  

I started with a A2 sized (4 ¼ x 5 ½ “) white card front, 80# cardstock.  I used Altenew’s Vintage Roses stamp set.  This is one of my first stamp sets and one of my favorites.  This is a 6 x 8” layering stamp set with loads of images and a couple sentiments.  This stamp set creates beautifully detailed roses with foliage in a couple different sizes.  Altenew has several different colour mini cube sets in the red family.  I used the Tea Party Mini Ink Cubes (my favorite) for the roses and Green Fields for the foliage.  I don’t want to give away too much detail in how I created the card.  I think It is so worth it to take the course and I do not want to spoil your fun and excitement.   I will say that I stamped the layered images, then I masked all the stamped roses before I started on my branches.  I created a border that tied in with the main image, added a little detailing to connect the border strip with the main image.   The sentiment is from the ever popular “Label Love” stamp set, this is another definite must have stamp set! The black background with the outlined sentiment can dress up or dress down any card.  I stamped the “love you” with Obsidian Pigment Ink.

Once all the stamping was completed, I adhered the card front and the border strip to a gray A2 card base and added some clear cup sequins in a couple areas.  I left in the inside blank for now.  What a beautiful card!

For more information on card making, scrapbooking, or if you are interested in the Altenew Educator Certification Program, visit Altenew here.  

Altenew Products used in this card:

Vintage Roses Stamp Set 

Tea Party Mini Cube Set 

Green Fields Mini Cube Set 

Label Love Stamp Set 

Obsidian Pigment Ink 

Joyce

Beyond Basic Backgrounds

Hello, I hope you are all staying safe and feeling well during these most challenging times.  Thank goodness we have crafting!  Today, I am posting my card for the Altenew-AECP Level II course Beyond Basic Backgrounds.  This is a quick and simple card.  To create my background, I started by inking some white card stock (CS) with Altenew’s Glacier Caves Mini Cube Set.  I used blending brushes to lay down my colour.  I used all four colours in the set to create an ombre effect.  I took my time with the blending to make sure the colour gradient transition was smooth (no harsh demarcation lines).  Once the CS was inked, I used Altenew’s Shutter Cover Die to cut out my piece.  The die cut is a little smaller than a A2 size (4 ½ x 5 ¼ “) card.   I used a glue pen to apply adhesive to some areas on the back of the inked die cut and then adhered it to the card base.  Since I started taking Violin lessons just recently, I thought this would be a perfect time to use Altenew’s Treble Love Die.  This die set comes with three metal dies, a Treble Clef, the sentiment “love you”, and a staff.  I cut out the Treble Clef and the “love you” twice in black CS.  I doubled-up each piece to make them a little more durable.  I added some tiny (and I do mean tiny) pieces of foam tape to the back in a few places and adhered them to the front of the card. I let the Cover Die parallelogram bars represent the staff.   Here are a couple photos of the finished card, for now the inside is blank.

Altenew products used to create this card:

Shutter Cover Die 

Glacier Caves Mini Cube Set 

Treble Love Die Set 

Impressive Heat Embossing

Hello Everyone, welcome back to my blog.  Today, I am sharing two little Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) that I created for my Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP) class Impressive Heat Embossing.  For more information on the program click here Altenew.

I knew I was going to water colour, so I started by cutting two pieces of Strathmore Cold Press 

water colour cardstock to ATC size 3 1/2 x 2 ½”.  I applied some anti-static powder to the surface of both the little card fronts.  I used some Versa Mark ink to imprint the images on the card fronts.   On both the cards I used white embossing powder.  Then I heat set the images using my (standard) heating tool.  For the “hugs” card I used the Altenew Dearest Friend stamp set. The Dearest Friend stamp set is a 6" x 8", high quality photo-polymer, clear stamp set containing 17 stamps total.  This stamp set contains floral, greenery, greetings and sentiments. Oh yeah and don’t forget the Dearest Friend matching die for the two floral images.   I created the colouring using a moderate amount of water and Gansi Tambi water colours (yellows and oranges).  After I finished the water colouring, I helped the drying process using my Tim Holtz heating tool (this has less concentrated heat than a standard heating tool).  If you don’t have the Tim Holtz heat tool, you can leave to images to dry in room air or use your standard heating tool but, I would make sure you have quite a bit of distance between the heating tool and the image to avoid warping.  To further minimize warping, once the images where dry, I placed them both between the pages of a very heavy book and put another heavy book on top of that and left them overnight.   I cut the “hugs” twice using a small Momenta die, one in white and the other in light blue.  I wanted the hugs to really stand out from the background, so I off-set the two “hugs” and then popped them up on some foam tape. It also brings the eye directly to the embossed image.

For the Sending Love & Hugs ATC, I followed the same process as I did for the “hugs”.  This time I used Altenew’s Breezy Bouquet stamp set and the sentiment is an Altenew exclusive gift stamp set called "Best Sentiments".   The Breezy Bouquet stamp set contains 12 stamps.  You get images to create a stand-a-lone floral image, a bouquet in a vase, or a wrapped bouquet.  You also get words and phrases in a beautiful soft font. And just in case you really want to impress the recipient, you can cut out some of the images with the Breezy Bouquet matching die!  I used my Gansi Tambi water colours, in greens, browns, reds.  I stamped the greeting with Gina K’s Amalgam ink.

 

See you next, Joyce

Irresistible Inking Techniques

Hello Everyone, 

Today I am posting my card for my last class in the level I courses for the Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP)-Irresistible Inking Techniques.   I used ombre water colouring and direct to card stock dry inking to create my card.  My inspiration came from a photo I saw on the Altenew.com website.  It was a photo using the Altenew A Study in Watercolor cutting dies and a dotted background (I think they used a cover plate).   I love the images available for inspiration on the die description.   The A Study in Watercolor dies set comes with 8 cutting dies total consisting of silhouette floral, foliage, and floral with foliage attached images.

When I started the card, I really didn’t have an idea of where I was going, I just knew I wanted to use the stamp set and or the dies for my project.  It turned out to be a little more challenging than I thought but I was determined to make it happen and I love how the card turned out. 

 

I started with some Strathmore Watercolor cardstock (CS) 140#.   I wet the CS with a good amount of water.  I have found that in water colouring if you have a good water colour CS with a lot of tooth, giving it lots of hydration will give you a smoother colour appearance when it dries back (Heavy weight Strathmore and Arches Cold Press VS. Bristol Smooth-Joyce’s opinion only).  I wanted an Ombre affect without using many inks colours. Using less colours gives less of a chance of getting a muddy appearance or harsh demarcation lines when the CS dries.   I used Altenew’s Ruby Red ink cube to lay on some colour to the wet CS.  I concentrated the colour toward one end of my CS and added more (clean) water as I worked my way toward the opposite end.  On a second piece of the water coloured CS I followed the same technique but this time I used the Forest Glade ink cube.  Once I achieved the colour gradients I was looking for, I used my Tim Holtz Heating tool to dry the CS pieces.   When the pieces were dry, I chose two dies from the die set.  One which reminded me of an open flower, this one I used the pink water coloured CS and another that looked like a small branch of leaves I used the green water coloured CS.   After I cut the images out of the water coloured CS, I arranged the images the way I wanted.  I put the pink flower on top of the foliage die cut so that a small portion of the foliage stem was sticking out of the bottom of the pink flower die cut.  This gives the idea that the flower was snipped from a branch of foliage.  I took a picture with my phone to help me remember the arrangement.   When I placed the die cuts on the paper, they just looked too flat.  I took a white Gelly Roll Pen (something I remembered from the Seasonal Scene Building class) and added a few white dots on the foliage die cuts.  I thought the die cuts needed a bit more shading, so I used Altenew inks Coral Berry and Frayed Leaf and the Tim Holtz Distress Blending Brushes to deepen the colours of the flowers and the foliage.  That helped some but it was still too flat once I placed the images on the plain white CS background (see photo below).  I pulled out my Altenew Dainty Swiss Dot background stamp to create a 4” x 5 ¼ “dotted background.  This is a great background stamp.  It comes with 10 total images, 8 sentiments, 1 punctuation, and a 5 ½ x 5 ½ large dotted stamp.   After I re-arranged the flowers on the background it was like a totally different card!  Love, love, lovin’ the card now!  And the way the die cut images are arranged helped create its own dimension (no foam tape required). I added a small amount of the white Gelly Roll Pen on the pink flowers, to give them some animation.  Because of the bold colours, I needed a sentiment that did not overwhelm the card.  I used Altenew’s Label Love- “Happy Birthday” which I stamped with the Jet Black ink cube.  I cut the sentiment down without a border and popped it up on some 3M foam tape to finish the card.  Instead of using a standard A2 sized card based (4 ¼” x 5 ½ “), I cut the based flush with the card front to 4” x 5 ¼”.  I love this card!!! (I think I said that about the last one as well…lol).  For more card making and scrapbooking inspiration as well as information about the Altenew Educator Certification Program be sure to visit Altenew.com 

Next up…Level I challenge, can’t wait too excited

Here is a close up of the detail added to the foliage and you can see a smooth transition in colour from dark to light

Here you can see even with the detail on the foliage it was still pretty flat looking.

Altenew Products

A Study in Watercolor Die Set 

Dainty Swiss Dots Stamp Set 

Label Love Stamp Set 

Red Cosmos Mini Cube Set 

Green Fields Mini Cube Set 

 Joyce