My Creative Roots: Level 3 Final Challenge

It has been two years since I began Altenew's Educator Certification Program and I am finally at the end!

I have learned so much by taking each lesson and doing nearly all of projects shown. During this process I have worked with many different mediums, products and concepts; most of which I would never have come up with on my own. It has been a great journey and I am thankful to all of the instructors I have learned from along the way especially Erum for all the questions she answered and input she provided.

I have been creating cards for about 20 years beginning with Stampin Up. After several years stamping with the same group of women; our demonstrator and her family had a great opportunity and moved abroad for a few years leaving me on my own. After a while I looked on the internet for products and new inspirations then several years ago, I found Altenew and was impressed with the products and the educational opportunities they offered. I learned about the Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP) and decided to give it a go.

Completing this self-guided certification program involved 25 online courses with multiple projects for each course. This program is divided into three levels; each level progressively more in depth with countless techniques, tips and tricks to improve ones skill level. These skills/techniques have been invaluable to me as a crafter and have been utilized as I challenge myself with other crafting hobbies.

To complete this process I was required to hold a workshop with at least four interested participants available at an the agreed upon time, create a detailed lesson plan, have all the necessary supplies to create 2 cards in a two hour period. After receiving approval then preparing a flyer regarding the workshop including its theme, date and time the invitations were sent out. Erum also attended via Zoom to see the participants and the process. The final step is to complete and post this blog.

My Level 3 Workshop

At this point in my life, I send out lots of Birthday, Get Well, Thank You and Sympathy cards. I wanted my theme to be upbeat so I chose to create a Birthday and a Thank you cards for this class.

Now long before I was interested in creating cards, I was a business major working in production and inventory control for many years. There was an acronym I have held onto since then. KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid. So, I hoped to Keep It Simple, so I didn’t look Stupid. At first I did not find the live streaming to be simple, but with some assistance I was able to live stream the workshop for Erum who couldn't attend in person. Being prepared with everything needed was another challenge, but this too was accomplished.

Not everyone that attended was familiar with card making so there were a few basics I shared:

QUALITY MATERIALS

Glue - Tape runners, liquid glue, double sided adhesive sheets, foam tape are examples of different products that we used in different situations. In general; tape runner are for adhering paper, liquid adhesive for embellishments and foam tape for dimension.
Die Cutting Machine - There are various manufacturers and sizes depending on your needs and available space. Theses machines provide an easy way to cut various images from many different papers and mediums.
Tweezers - Help hold smaller pieces, lift backing from double sided adhesive.
Paper cutter - can't create cards without this item.
Scissors - another mandatory piece of equipment.
Pokers - help push out chads in die cut elements
Bonefolders - Helps give folds a professional clean look.

TECHNIQUES we used included:

Stamping - Practice stamping to determine the correct amount of pressure and the right amount of ink to use. Be careful about rocking the stamp, this can cause a double image and or smudges. Practice.
Layering – This involves stacking the same shaped piece to create interest and dimension or shadows.
Embellishing – Besides being a great way to hide a mistake or unintended smudge, embellishments are a great way to add dimension and color. Enamel Dots, Sequins, Sentiments and Ribbons are all available options for embellishing a card.
Clean up - This is not the most interesting part of the process especially when one is excited to create. Most cleanup can wait until the end, but cleaning ink off stamps should be done as soon as you are done with a particular ink color. This avoids contamination of inks and keeps stamps free of anything that could impair the image. Liquid glue should be kept covered; with a pin or cap; when not in use to avoid crusting over on the top. Putting clean dies and stamps back in their storage container makes it so much easier to find next time they are needed.
Make Extras – just in case and to use on future projects.

The finished room in our basement was a perfect area to set up for this class. There was plenty of room for each participant, the materials and required equipment, along with snacks, the camera and computer.

My Level 3 Workshop

Not everyone that attended was familiar with card making so there were a few basics I shared:

QUALITY MATERIALS

Glue - Glue Tape runners, liquid glue, double sided adhesive sheets, foam tape are examples of different products that we used in different situations. In general; tape runner for adhering paper, liquid adhesive for embellishments and foam tape for dimension.
Die Cutting Machine - There are various manufacturers and sizes depending on your needs and available space. These machines provides and easy way to cut various images from many different papers and mediums.
Tweezers - Help hold smaller pieces, lift backing from double sided adhesive.
Paper cutter - can't create cards without this item.
Scissors - another mandatory piece of equipment.
Pokers - help push out chads in die cut elements.
Bonefolders - Helps give folds a professional clean look.

TECHNIQUES we used included:

Stamping - Practice stamping to determine the correct amount of pressure and the right amount of ink to use. Be careful about rocking the stamp, this can cause a double image and or smudges. Practice.
Layering – This involves stacking the same shaped piece to create interest and dimension or shadows.
Embellishing – Besides being a great way to hide a mistake or unintended smudge, embellishments are a great way to add dimension and color. Enamel Dots, Sequins, Sentiments and Ribbons are all available options for embellishing a card.
Clean up - This is not the most interesting part of the process especially when one is excited to create. Most cleanup can wait until the end, but cleaning ink off stamps should be done as soon as you are done with a particular ink. This avoids contamination of inks and keeps stamps free of anything that could impair the image. Liquid glue should be kept covered; with a pin or cap; when not in use to avoid crusting over on the top. Putting clean dies and stamps back in their storage container makes it so much easier to find next time they are needed.
Make Extras – just in case and to use on future projects.

Card 1 Happy Birthday

These are my samples of the first card to be created. Although this project does not incorporate the most advanced techniques it is a great and simple way to create a colorful dimensional card. The ease of this process may hook someone into the art of card making. This Simple Flower stamp set is whimsical, and a variety of ink colors create an upbeat image.

Supplies used included:

Simple Flowers stamp set

Halftone Happy die set
Birthday Greetings & Birthday Builder stamp sets
Fresh Dye Inks

Aqualicious, Be Grapeful, Blush Rose, Coral Berry, Galactic Stream, Lettuce Celebrate, Mid Yellow, Ride the Wave, Snapdragon, Ultraviolet, Wisteria

White card stock 8.5” x 5.5” scored at 4.25” for a top fold card
White card stock 4” x 5.25”
Colored card stock  4.25” x 5.5”
Glitter card stock                       White Envelope
Die Cutting Machine                  Acrylic stamp blocks
Stamp Wheel                             Stamp cleaner
Liquid Glue                                 Tweezers

Glue Tape Pokers

PROCESS

The stamps from the Simple Flowers set were prepositioned on separate acrylic blocks. To become comfortable with the amount of ink needed along with the amount of pressure required for a good image participants used scrap paper to practice. After stamping a few practice images everyone was comfortable with how much ink and pressure is required.
Using a piece of 4.25" x 5.5" card stock each participant stamped the base and envelope using various stamps / inks. Partial images were used for added interest and some added images to the inside of the card and the envelope.
For the next step a piece of glitter card stock was chosen and “happy” was die cut out using a die cutting machine. This step was repeated three times using white card stock. The white images were layered using small amounts of liquid glue then the glittered image was adhered to the top.
Glue tape was used to adhere stamped panel onto the top of the folded piece of white card stock.
Sentiment: After determining the best place for the “Happy” the positioning of the “BIRTHDAY” was considered. The birthday was either stamped using the Stamp Wheel or an acrylic block. The stamp wheel makes it easier to reink the stamp if the images is not dark enough. Liquid glue was used on the bottom of the glittered “happy” and adhered to the card.

5. Enamel Dots were added for interest.

TIPS:

Using ink pads larger than the image to be stamped helps get a consistent distribution of ink on the image.
To avoid contaminating inks use stamp cleaner / wipes/ rag on the stamp after stamping.
Think about where the “birthday” may be placed and leave room for it; or not; The "birthday" could be stamped on top of a flower if desired.
When stamping the envelope avoid areas where addresses or stamp belong.
“Mistakes” can be covered up with a die cut image, sentiment, or embellishment.
Use poker to remove die cut image from the die and to remove chads from image.
Using Liquid glue provides time to align pieces; this is so helpful when stacking images.
Odd numbers of embellishments are more pleasing to the eye; 3 or 5 works well.
Images can also be added to the inside of the card if desired.

OPTIONS:

One may choose to trim a 1/4" off the front stamped panel then add a coordinating piece of colored card stock underneath the top panel.

AECP Level 3 Final Card 2

Sample card for second project

The Supplies used included:

Adore You Stamp & Die Set

White card stock: 1 @ 8.5” x 5.5” scored at 4.25”, 3 @ 5.5” x 4.25”

Artist Markers: Lavender Fields (R702),Soft Lilac (C002), Midnight Violet (G715), Pink Crystal (R602), Frayed Leaf (G702), Forest Glades (G715)

Crisp Ink Pads: Deep Iris, Lavender Fields, Forest Glades

Pigment Inks: Permanent Black

Card stock: 1”x 5.5” from Black & White Paper Pack Extra white card stock

Die Cutting Machine Acrylic Block FoamTape

Satin Masking Tape StampWheel Enamel Dots

Liquid glue Glue Tape

PROCESS:

1. A few flowers from the Adore You stamp set were positioned onto a Stamp Wheel plate then stamped onto a piece of white piece of 4.25" x 5.5" card stock using Deep Iris ink. Using a second plate leaves were positioned so that one could turn the card stock around and create extra leaves on the same piece of card stock; if extra leaves were desired. Forest Glades ink was used to stamp the leaf outlines.

2. Once the stamped images dried, artist markers where used to color the images. This was accomplished by using the brush nib end of the markers and working from inside of each image with a light flicking motion bringing the brush toward the outer edge. Lighter colors were used first then blending with darker colors. There were extras for practicing.

- For the flowers: Lavender Fields, Soft Lilac, and Midnight Violet markers were used
- For the leaves: Frayed Leaf and Forest Glades markers were used.

3. Using the coordinating dies the flowers and leaves were cut out. Prior to actually die cutting the images the dies were secure to the paper with Satin Masking tape prior to die cutting making sure that the tape is not too sticky.

4. Next a piece of card stock from the Black & White Paper Pack was chosen and cut cut to 1”x 5.5".

5. Prior to adhering the images to the card base each component was positioned to determine the best design; including just where the sentiment should be stamped. Once a plan was made the strip of paper, flower(s) and leaves were adhered using foam tape to adhere flowers and glue tape to attach the leaves. The sentiment added using black ink.

TIPS:

The Stamp Wheel can be used to position the sentiment and provides the opportunity to reink sentiment if desired.
Using a different color for any component could add contrast.

Add an odd number of enamel dots to the card panel.
Consider using a coordinating marker and outline the 1” strip.
Add an image to the inside of the card or the envelope.

Here are some of the cards created at this workshop along with the artists who created them