AECP Level 1 - Seasonal Scene Building

 Hello, friends!

Thanks for coming back to my little spot on the web.  I appreciate all of your support and feedback as I work my way through AECP!  Today's Paper Play post is on the class that I just finished, Seasonal Scene Building, which had 6 inspiring tutorials on creating beautiful scenes.  When asked what my card making style is, the answer at the tip of my tongue is always creating a story with a scene.  I like to think up a story in my mind and find the perfect way to convey it an image.  That's why I enjoyed this course so much.

Card 1

I love the Fall.  It's my favorite season.  The vibrant colors, the smell of leaves in the air, brisk mornings, and pumpkin everything . . . I love it all!  That's why I chose to focus on it for the scene for my first card.  This card used two new products from Altenew: Sunrise in the Park Stamp & Die Set and Bird Bath Layering Die Set.  The design that I had in mind was the bird bath and birds in a park as the main focus, with lots of green, yellow, orange, and red as accents in the background.  I used the following Altenew Crisp Dye Inks to achieve this: Jet Black, Iceberg, Eastern Sky, Green Opal, Evergreen, Shadow Creek, Citrus Burst, Snapdragon, Raw Amber, and Red Jasper.  I also used Lawn Fawn Yeti White Pigment Ink, Tim Holtz Walnut Stain Distress Ink, Delicata Golden Glitz Pigment Ink, and Ohuhu Honolulu Alcohol Ink markers.

 

The bird bath and birds were created first with the following steps:

• Die cut the three layering pieces of the bird bath - the main base from a medium gray card stock, the second layer from a slightly lighter gray, and the third layer from a very light gray card stock.
• Assembled the three pieces using craft glue.
• Added cement striation marks to the main base piece using a light cool gray alcohol marker.
• Used a Sakura Gelly Roll White gel pen to add additional details to the cement.
• Die cut the pieces for the birds from white card stock.
• Colored the various bird pieces using alcohol markers and added some shading with the White gel pen.
• Assembled the birds using craft glue, and then glued them to the bird bath.

Next up was creating the front panel of the card.  With a 5x7 piece of white card stock:

• Blended the sky starting with Iceberg and then adding in some Eastern Sky.  I wanted to add a cloudy look without stamping actual clouds, so I blended some of the Yeti White ink over it.  I love the look of it!
• Blended the grassy area using Shadow Creek, a little Citrus Burst, and some Green Opal.  I wanted the grass to look a little darker since it's later in the year and likely not as light as in the Spring or Summer.
• Stamped the tree line where the sky and grass meet.  I started by stamping it with Evergreen.  I then cleaned the stamp, loaded it with Citrus Burst, and stamped the image again.  I repeated this step with Snap Dragon, Raw Amber, and Red Jasper to achieve the look of the foliage.  I didn't stamp each color over the entire stamp; rather, I would add it onto random spots on the stamp to give it a more natural looking placement.
• Used the corner leaf stamp to give the impression of a tree hanging overhead from the side.  I stamped it using the same method described above for the tree line.
• Stamped and die cut the tree and the bench.  The tree was stamped in a very similar manner as previously described; the only difference is that I used more Snapdragon as I wanted orange to be more prominent.  I used Walnut Stain to stamp the tree and a white gel pen to give it a little more detail.  Walnut Stain was used to stamp the bench, and detail was added with a black alcohol marker and a white gel pen.
• The tree and bench were adhered to the panel using craft glue, and the bird bath was adhered using Altenew Double Sided Foam Tape.  I wanted to use the foam tape to add dimension and make it look like the bird bath is in the foreground, while the bench and tree are in the background.
• Used a dark orange alcohol marker to add the effect of scattered leaves around the tree.
• Placed the panel of my stamping platform, arranged the sentiment stamps, loaded them with Jet Black ink and Golden Glitz ink, and stamped it.  I repeated this step twice to ensure a nice, deep stamp.  The word sunshine shimmers when the light catches it - just like a ray of sunshine!

 

Card 2

I'm someone who loves the ocean and finds such serenity when I'm by it.  I'm not, however, someone who likes to sit on the beach for hours in the hot sun.  I enjoy spending my beach time walking along the shore, looking for shells and sea glass, and just admiring the natural beauty of the water and rocks.  That's what inspired my second card.  I wanted to focus on the water and a lighthouse under a starry sky, and the sailboat is a perfect companion for it.  My design also imagined that it would be an older print that was mounted on a darker, older paper.  I find it fun to make a newer item look more vintage.

 

I used Seas the Day Stamp Set and Be a Lighthouse Stamp Set, as well as the following Altenew Crisp Dye Inks: Eastern Sky, Ultramarine, and Jet Black.  Other items used in creating it included: Tim Holtz Antique Linen, Old Photo, and Ground Espresso Distress Inks, Lawn Fawn Yeti White Pigment Ink, Ohuhu Honolulu Alcohol markers, a Sakura Gelly Roll White Gel Pen, and Creative Expressions Cosmic Shimmer Cosmic Twinkles glue.

The lighthouse, sailboat, and sentiment block were the first things that I created.  I recently purchased some paper made by Wanderings that is handmade in India and naturally dried in the sun.  It has an old look to it and comes with a distressed, deckled edge.  I wanted to use this paper for every element of the card's front panel so that it had a more vintage look to it.  Those items were created by:

• Lighthouse and sailboat were stamped onto the Wanderings paper and colored with alcohol markers and a white gel pen.  I then fussy cut each image with my detail scissors.
• The sentiment block was cut using a deckled edge die.  I then selected the sentiment "Be a Lighthouse; Shine for others when they are in darkness", stamped it onto this piece using Ground Espresso Distress Ink, took the Vintage Photo Distress Ink and went around the image to give it an older look, and used the Antique Linen Distress Ink to give some age spots to the front of it.

I next created the panel background:

• Stamped the water pattern on the bottom third of a Wandering panel using the water stamp and Ultramarine ink.  I would stamp a section, move the stamp over and align it, and then stamp the next section.
• Shaded in the water using the Eastern Sky ink, and added some wave effects with the white gel pen.
• Blended the sky using Eastern Sky ink with a light blend of the Yeti White over it.
• Stars were added using the Cosmic Twinkles glue by adding a random scattering of drops across the sky.

To finish the card:

• The lighthouse was adhered using double sided foam tape to give it some dimension, and a yellow alcohol marker was used to add the look of the light shining from the lighthouse and reflecting on the water.
• The sailboat was adhered using double sided foam tape, and a yellow alcohol marker was used to added a little reflection on the sail from the lighthouse.
• The sentiment block was adhered using double sided foam tape.
• I ran the Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edges of the front panel and adhered it to a 5x7 light brown card base using double sided foam tape.
  
• Added some light age marks to the sides of the front panel using Antique Linen Distress Ink.
• Ran the Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edges of the card base to age it.  I really like the effect it adds - so much character!

 

That wraps up this post about the scenic cards that I created.  Two very different cards, and they can truly be used for any occasion and given to anyone.  I hope that you enjoy them.  Until next time . . . be well!