AECP Level 1 Final Challenge

Hey y'all! Glad you could stop by my blog today. This one is going to be a long one and I hope you will stay until the end and that you will find something new to inspire you. After completing all of my level 1 classes for Altenew Educators Certification Program, I was assigned a final challenge project and I will share my final project with you here.

The challenge rules were:

• Create 2 coordinated sets of cards. One set for masculine and one set for feminine 
• Create packaging for the cards to make a gift set
• Use 3 components from the Level 1 classes and explain them
• Use a recycled material in the sets or packaging

For my challenge cards you will see elements from the For the Guys, Clean & Simple Boutique, Easy Die Cutting Techniques, Let It Shine, Celebration Stencil Techniques, and Irresistible Inking classes. I had a hard time just choosing 3. 

I will start out with the masculine. This is the set that gave me the hardest time creating. Masculine cards are always a struggle for me. My crafting friend Tina let me borrow a couple of die sets that she had since I was lacking in the masculine stamps & dies department. For the masculine card set I chose blues, grays and silver colors, mainly because that is my husband and younger son's favorite colors.

Card 1 uses elements from the For the Guys class, Let It Shine class, and Irresistible Inking class.

For this card I pulled out my Lindy's Magical Powders for the background. I sprinkled the powders on to a piece of watercolor paper and then sprayed with water so the colors would move and blend. Once the panel was dry, I heat embossed with Altenew Whimsical Herringbone stamp and Brutus Monroe Raven embossing powder.

I die cut Simon Says Stamp Large Fancy Happy Birthday die 3 times and layered them for dimension. I stamped the wishing you from the Altenew Faceted Stars set onto a smaller strip and attached it just above the die cut words.

   

       

Card 2 uses elements from Easy Die Cutting Techniques, Celebrate Stencil Techniques, and Irresistible Ink Blending class. 

I started this card by ink blending then embossing with Altenew Bamboo Branches embossing folder and stencil set. I used Distress Oxide inks and a domed foam to do the ink blending before embossing the image for dimension and texture. Once the background was complete, I stamped and die cut the panda from Altenew Roaming Panda set and attached him to the card using foam tape.

This would be a great card for a younger boy and you could easily change up the sentiment for any occasion.

Card 3 uses elements from Easy Die Cutting Techniques and For the Guys classes.

This card started with die cutting the Simple Shapes Cover Die from 5 different colors of cardstock. I then cut down the cover die piece to make a strip instead of using the whole piece. After sticking the strip to a piece of double-sided adhesive, I then used the pieces from the other 4 colors I had cut to randomly piece in the triangle and parallelogram shapes. The double-sided adhesive makes this technique much easier to piece together.

Once the strip was pieced, I attached it to a strip of gray cardstock and using ATG tape attached the completed strip to the left side of the card front. I used Altenew Birthday Builder stamp set to create a sentiment and glued it to the card front. 

  

Card 4 uses elements from Celebrating Stencil Techniques and Easy Die Cutting Techniques classes.

Another card I was able to complete thanks to my crafty friend Tina. I started this card by cutting and layer the Altenew Wooden Rowboat die. While the glue dried on this layered die piece, I used the new Altenew Water Stencil and 2 different colors of ink with a large Altenew blending brush to create a watery background for my boat. You can get different looks with this stencil depending on how you rotate the stencil and how heavy or light you blend your colors.

I also die cut the Altenew Birthday Wish die sentiment twice and the backer layer once. When I started layering all of the elements it felt like the card was missing something. I cut another Simple Shapes cover die piece and then using my scissors I trimmed out the center of the die cut cardstock leaving just a frame that I attached around the edge of this card front giving it a more finished feel.

 

Card 5 uses elements from Let It Shine, Clean & Simple Boutique, and Easy Die Cutting Techniques.

For this card I stamped the right side of the cardstock with Altenew Illusion Diamonds using Versamark ink and then embossed the image with silver embossing powder. I trimmed the cardstock to be 4" x 5.5" and layered it on a piece of My Favorite Things Silver cardstock.

I used the same silver cardstock to die cut the Altenew Linear Crossroads die and glued it to the card front. I also die cut the Altenew Birthday Wishes die and layered it on top of the Linear Crossroads die cut. 

Now for the feminine card set. These were so much easier for me to create. Altenew has such terrific floral stamps and dies. For these cards I went with a purple and orange color scheme but also brought in a little of the blue from the masculine cards.

Card 1 uses elements from Easy Die Cutting Techniques and Let It Shine classes.

I started out by using the Altenew Circle Quilt Cover die to create a background leaving all of the pieces intact. I die cut the Altenew Craft-A-Flower Sulfur Cosmos die set from Taylored Expressions Candy Corn cardstock and then using Altenew Fresh Dye ink in Crimson and a small blending brush I ink blended the edges of the flower petals. I then glued them together and painted some Wink of Stella over the flower centers for a little shine. The leaves were cut from vellum and then I used a Copic alcohol marker on the backs for a little color. Altenew makes creating these great flower elements so easy with their keyhole and arrow system in addition to the directions in each package.

The sentiment was stamped with VersaFine Clair ink using Altenew Classic Greetings. I die cut the greeting 3 times and layered it for dimension. I prefer this technique to give dimension over using foam.  

Card 2 uses elements from Let It Shine, Easy Die Cutting Techniques, and Irresistible Ink Blending Techniques classes.

 

I again grab my Lindy's Magical Powders for this one. Using my Misti Stamp Positioner I stamped a piece of watercolor paper with Altenew’s In the Woodlands image using a very light ink so I could see where it was going to be then I sprinkled the powder colors where I wanted them to be concentrated and sprayed with water. I continued to add those colors until I was happy with how it looked and let it dry. 

After the panel completely dried, I brushed it well with Simon Says Stamp Anti-static powder and placed it back in the Misti then stamped it again using Versamark embossing ink and heat embossed it with Brutus Monroe Gilded embossing powder. The hello was die cut with Altenew Simply Hello die. I placed a piece of low tack tape covering half of the word and then used Versamark ink to cover the exposed half so that I could heat emboss it with more Gilded embossing powder.

The panel was die cut using Spellbinders A2 rectangle dies. Even with the sparkle in the Magical Powder the image felt a little flat so using the matching stencil I added some ink blending to the flowers and the leaves and a little around the edges of the card front for more depth. Once everything was layered on the card front, I decided to stamp the “a little note” sentiment and gold emboss it on black cardstock. 

Although I wasn't sure at first how I felt about this card, it is definitely my favorite one!

Card 3 uses elements from Celebrate Stencil Techniques, Let It Shine and Irresistible Ink Blending Techniques classes.

The background was ink with purple ink using the Altenew Sunburst Stencil. I lightly went over the whole panel with the ink left on my large Altenew blending brush to knock back the huge contrast of the white cardstock and purple ink. I trimmed the panel down again using the Spellbinders A2 rectangle die and very lightly blended some black in around the edges for added depth.

Using my Misti I stamped the large flower image from Altenew Nostalgic Florals set, then used the coordinating stencil to ink blend the image. The image was then placed back in the Misti and stamped again with the ink to crisp up the lines. Once that was completed, I die cut the image using the coordinating die.

I used Altenew Birthday Builder set to stamp the black strip using Versamark ink and Brutus Monroe Gilded embossing power to create the sentiment strip.

 

Card 4 uses elements from Celebrate Stencil Techniques and Easy Die Cutting Techniques classes.

Using the Altenew Circle Frame stencil I ink blended with purple and blue on to my white card base. I die cut Altenew Boho Vases die to die cut the vases and leaves from purple and green cardstock. Before adhering the dies to the card front, I placed everything in my Misti figured out where I wanted the dies to be placed and stamped the thinking of you greeting from Altenew Heartfelt Sentiments using VersaFine Clair black ink. Then I glued the larger vase and leaves to the card front and used foam dots to adhere the smaller ones for a little dimension.

Card 5 uses elements from Clean and Simple Boutique and Let It Shine classes.

I stamped the image from Altenew Paint-A-Flower Sweet Pea set on to an A2 size panel of purple cardstock using Versamark ink and silver embossing powder to emboss the image. The panel was then trimmed down to 4" x 5.5" and layered on a piece of My Favorite Things Silver cardstock then attached to the card base.

The smile was die cut from the same purple and silver cardstocks using Altenew XOXO & More die set and adhered to the card front with foam dots.

One of the challenge instructions was to use a recycled item in the cards or the packaging. I try not to keep a lot of stuff around but did find an Altenew shipping box that I had saved so decided to use that for my gift packaging.

To make the gift box I placed one of my cards on top of the piece of the shipping box to get my measurements. I then measured how tall the sides of the box needed to be by figuring out how tall the stack of 10 cards were. I added that to the measurements of the cards plus another 1/8". Once I had all my measurements, I drew them out on to the inside of the box piece. 

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a few pictures of the box making process; I promise to get better with my picture taking. Here I cut slits in the 4 corners to make flaps and then without cutting completely thru the cardboard layers, I lightly scored around all of the lines so that the cardboard would fold easily and neatly.  Here is a blog post I found to follow along with to make my box bottom - https://stickinsect.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/making-a-cardboard-box/. 

I decided I wanted a clear top for my gift box so I grabbed a piece of acetate and followed the same directions except that I cut out the corner squares completely out instead of just cutting slits so that I could fold it to make it fit inside of the box bottom. 

Once I was happy with the top and bottom, I could insert my cards, tie a pretty ribbon around it and add the for you tag.

If you made it to the bottom of this post, I greatly appreciate your time and hope you found even a little bit of inspiration to use in your card making journey. Thanks for stopping by!!