AECP Level 2 Beyond Basic Backgrounds

The last load of guest laundry is dry and folded.

Except for my Santa collection, the holiday decorations are boxed and put away.

Now am I ever ready to trade my poinsettia stamps for the wide variety of Altenew’s other flowers and stamps.

AECP Level II has begun!

Beyond Basic Backgrounds will be fun for me as I love new techniques and ideas for backgrounds.

Lesson one is new to me.  It includes a DIY stencil and monochromatic ink blending.

For this first card I used Altenew inks in the sea shore family.  I selected a favorite bud from Botanical Garden.  (I think it looks like the rose hips we used to gather to make potpourri.)

Once the ink blending was finished I white heat embossed each image.

The sentiment is from Birthday Greetings.

The Fuchsia Build-A-Flower set has been calling to me.  (I grew them in a shady spot at our midwest home.)
The same technique as above was used to create this card.  It’s not quite monochromatic as I added a little green.
Note this sentiment and the sentiment above are inked in the same monochromatic colors as the flowers.

In Lesson 4 Lydia Evans taught me two new and fabulous techniques.

I didn’t know Freezer Paper was even available anymore but now it’s a necessity not in my kitchen but in my studio!  My first new technique involved making a stencil from Freezer Paper and temporarily adhering it to water color paper with a Minc.    (Who thinks up these things?)

The second new technique was the unique way Lydia cut out her sentiment.  I had to try a few times as I was adapting her idea to a different sentiment from Family Matters.

As with the cards in lesson #1 Ombre was used but this time with water color and the Striped Leaf Cover Die.  I found too much water spoils the look.  A good quality water color paper does make a difference.

I almost trashed this pink card front.  With the freezer paper stencil still on it I thought the color looked blotchy and the paper even seemed kind of over-worked.  But I did remove the stencil and it turns out to be my favorite!  A little sprinkle of white acrylic paint was added.

One last freezer paper stencil just because it goes so well with my nail polish!

This last background is a water-resist using Oxide Distress Inks.  Both the lightening image and the sentiment come from Altenew’s Rain or Shine stamp set.