AECP - Beyond Basic Backgrounds

I passed my Altenew Educators Certification Program Level 1 project and can now move on to the Level 2 classes. I decided to start with the Beyond Basic Backgrounds taught by Lydia Evans.

In Beyond Basic Backgrounds, Lydia shows 6 different techniques to step up your background game. For my cards I decided to showcase the Water Bleached and the Wax Resist Watercolor techniques.

For the Water Bleached cards I made 2 because I wanted to compare the difference between Ranger Distress Inks and Ranger Distress Oxide Inks with this technique. The oxide inks ended up giving a less defined bleached look and the regular distress inks was much brighter and gave me an almost tie-dyed look to the background. 

Using distress inks and a domed blending tool, I ink blended 2 pieces of pre-cut Ranger watercolor cardstock. Then because I am an impatient crafter, I used my Ranger Heat Tool to dry both of the backgrounds. 

In the class, Lydia suggests using a piece of Cut & Dry foam to dab water on to the stamps before stamping them on to the ink blended watercolor paper using a stamp positioner tool. For me, I found that I got a much better bleached look by lightly spritzing my stamps with the water. I would suggest you to try both ways and see which one works best for you.

Once the panels were dry, I was able to move ahead to finishing each one. 

For the purple and pink card, I simply stamped the vellum piece using the Altenew Classic Greetings stamp set and VersaMark then heat embossed with Brutus Monroe Raven embossing powder. I wrapped the vellum strip around the card front and embellished it with ebony black Nuvo Drops.

For the pink card, with VersaFine Clair ink I stamp across the top of the card with several of the leave stamps from Altenew Leaf Clusters and used a sentiment from Altenew Illusion Diamonds. Splattered with a little Dr PH Martins Black Star Matte ink and embellished it with more of the ebony black Nuvo Drops.

Supplies used:
Stamps: Altenew Classic Greetings, Altenew Leaf Clusters, Altenew Illusion Diamonds, Altenew Bold Bouquet
Inks: Ranger Distress Ink and Distress Oxide Ink, VersaFine Clair, VersaMark
Paper: Ranger Watercolor, Neenah Solar White, Taylored Expressions, Vellum
Other: Nuvo Crystal Drops

For the Wax Resist Watercolor technique, I messed up and used waxed paper instead of freezer paper. I miss read and heard what was suppose to be used but I think it still came out looking good even with that mess up.

For this card I cut the Garden Trellis cover die out of waxed paper. Ran the waxed paper piece & watercolor paper through my Minc machine and then using Altenew Artist Watercolor 24 pan set I loosely water colored a piece of Ranger Watercolor cardstock. Once the panel was dry, I die cut one of the leaf dies from Altenew Just Leaves die set using black cardstock, glued it to the water-colored panel, and then stamped and attached my sentiment using foam squares.

Supplies used:
Stamps: Altenew Sketchy Floral
Dies: Altenew Just Leave, Altenew Garden Trellis cover plate, My Favorite Things Sentiment die
Ink: VersaFine Clair
Paper: Neenah cardstock, Taylored Expressions, Ranger Watercolor