AECP LEVEL 1 - Let it Shine

Welcome back, friends!

Today’s Paper Play post is about making cards that have some bling to make them shine.  Whether it be glitter, foil, embossing, or embellishments, Let it Shine is a course that has you covered.  I made two cards for the course.  Keep reading and I’ll go over each with you.

Card 1

I find a lot of beauty in the Lotus flower.  The pink and white hues, the green pad, and the fullness of its body makes it a gorgeous flower. It starts growing in the mud, emerges from the murkey waters, and shares its beauty for all to see.  It shines through murkiness, which makes it the perfect object of inspiration for a course called Let it Shine.

I started the card by using one of the lotus stamps from the Altenew Lotus Frame Stamp and Die Set.  I stamped it onto a small piece of pink glitter card stock from Recollections.  I chose this paper so that the lotus would be pink and would shine from the glitter.  After stamping it using Altenew Jet Black Crisp Dye Ink, I used a couple of pink Arteza Inkonic Premium pens to add some shading to the lotus leaves.  The finishing touch for the lotus was to apply some small white highlights using a Sakura Gelly Roll White Gel Pen.  This not only adds a little bit of white to the leaves, but it also softens the pink shading a bit.

Next up was stamping the flower pad.  I inked one of the pad stamps with black ink and stamped it onto a small piece of Recollections white shimmer paper.  I used this paper to give the pad a subtle amount of shine.  It was colored with an Ohuhu Honalulu Vivid Green Alcohol marker to color it, and the corresponding die was used to cut it out.  I then decided where I wanted the lotus to sit on the flower pad, put some Altenew Double Sided Tape on the back of the flower, and adhered it to the pad.  My lotus flower was now complete.

Next up was stamping the frame to put around the flower.  I didn’t want to use gold or another shiney color because I didn’t want to detract from the focus of the lotus.  I thought that black paper would help the flower stand out and decided to use it as the base of the frame.  The frame die from the set was loaded onto my stamping platform, inked up with Fawn Yeti White Pigment Ink, and stamped onto the black paper.  I repeated this a couple of more times to get good coverage of the white pigment ink on the black paper.  I removed the stamped paper from the stamping platform and used my heat tool to help dry and set the ink.  Once dry, I used the corresponding frame die to cut it out.  The die also cuts out the center of the frame, which was fine with me because I wanted the center piece ro sit below the frame and create some depth.  I used double sided tape to adhere the flower to the cut out center piece, and then adhered it to the frame using Altenew Double Sided Foam tape.  As you can see in the pic below, it does create some depth and that depth helps to draw attention to the lotus in the center of the frame.

The last steps included mounting the completed frame piece onto a 3.75” x 5” piece of white cardstock, and then adhereing that panel to an A2 sized black card base.  What better way to let someone know that you’re proud of them than by sharing this beautiful and resilient flower?  I stamped this sentiment onto the card and and used my white Gelly Roll pen to write the word “you” at the end of the stamped sentiment.  This finished the card.  I love the shine that the pink glitter paper gives to the lotus flower!

Card 2

I think of butterflies as another example of something in nature that shines.  They exhibit their beauty on their wings as they flutter about.  I chose a butterfly as the shining focus of my second card.  I made the butterfly first and started it by using one of the stamps from the Altenew Dovetail Butterflies Stamp & Die Set.  I loaded it with black ink and stamped it onto a small piece  of white card stock.  I added the shine to it by coloring it with my glitter gel pens.  I know that rainbow colors likely don’t exist all at once on a butterfly in nature . . . but they do in my creative world! 😊  The corresponding die was used to cut out the butterfly.

Next up was creating a flower.  I didn’t want one that was too large, and so I decided to use the flower from the Altenew One of a Kind Stamp Set.  It’s the perfect size to sit at the bottom of the frame and not take the focus off of the butterfly.  It was stamped onto a small piece of white card stock with black ink.  I colored the petals with an Ohuhu Honalulu Viola Alcohol marker, the stem with an Altenew Bamboo Alcohol marker, and then went over the flower outline with a Sakura Black Glaze Pen.  I wanted the look of some larger leaves and so I stamped the leaf from the Altenew Adore You Add On Stamp & Die Set onto a small piece of white card stock.  I then stamped it again onto my reverse stamping silicone pad and pressed my piece of white card stock onto the pad.  I now had two matching leaves - one for each side of the flower.  I colored each leaf with the Bamboo alcohol marker and cut them out with the correspnding die.

My design included a circular frame in the center of the card.  I used two circular dies, one smaller than the other, aligned them onto a piece of mirrored foil cardstock, and put some Post It Tape across the dies to secure them in place.  Running this through my die cutting machine created the circular frame.  I had a leftover scrap of a lattice cut out from a previous card and I wanted to use it as a backgroud.  I used the smaller of the two circles to cut the lattice inlay for the frame.

I could now start to assemble and put my design in motion.  I started with a scrap of white card stock that I knew would center well onto the A2 sized navy blue card base.  I adhered it down with some double sided tape.  I then: centered the black circular lattice inlay piece on the white card stock, applied double sided foam tape onto the back of the metallic frame, and adhered it over the lattice piece.

It was then that some inspiration struck and I thought it might be too late to incorporate it.  I thought it would be nice to incorporate some light blue for the sky and some light green for grass . . . but I had already adhered the lattice and frame.  Neither color would impact the black color of the lattice though, and so I decided to add some Altenew Iceberg Crisp Dye Ink and Green Fields Crisp Dye Ink to that area. I like the way it looks!  I put some double sided foam tape on the backside of the butterfy, chose where I wanted to place it, and it adhered it down.  I used some craft glue to add in the flower and leaves at the bottom of the frame.  The butterfly stamp set comes with some word stamps and I chose to use “you’re my favorite” to stamp onto the card.  The last touch was to gently fold up the butterfly’s wings a bit to make it look like it’s flying.

I ended up with cards that add some subtle bling to make them shine just a little bit more.

I hope you enjoy both of them.  Until next time . . . be well!