AECP Level 2 - With a Twist

Welcome back to Paper Play, my crafty friends!

Today’s a bit of an overcast, showery day in the Boston area.  The good thing about it is that it gave me the chance to finish up my cards for my latest AECP Level 2 class, With a Twist.  I really enjoyed this class, which was taught by Therese Calvird.  The course focused on ways to take your favorite card making techniques and use them in a different way to give your cards a little bit of a twist.  Therese gave some really good tips on everything from die cutting, stamping, and inking.  I made two cards, each with a twist, that I’ll walk you through.

Card 1 - My Dear Friend

My first card is a beautiful floral design that has two twists - one is the deckled edge shaped design of the whole card, and the second is the vintage grunge look that I applied to the card.  This card was inspired by my very dear friend, Arleen.  I became friends with Arleen quite a few years ago while sitting at the bar of our favorite local restaurant.  We started to chat and the rest is history.  Arleen is so supportive of the cards and crafts that I make and loves to see pictures of them.  We always enjoy many laughs together, and she is one of the nicest people you will ever meet.  I saw her last week and she was wearing a beautiful purple floral top.  I saw the flowers and inspiration struck.  I even took her picture to share with all of you.  This one is for you, my dear friend!

I used the following products to make this card:

• Altenew Cherry Blossoms Bunch Stamp and Die Set
  
• Altenew Woodless Coloring Pencils: Midnight Violet, Rubellite, Saphire, White, Grassfield, Shadow Creek, Limeade, Lemonade, and Fresh Lemon
  
• Spellbinders Deckled Rectangles Cutting Dies
• Tim Holtz Distress Inks: Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, and Walnut Stain
• Sakura Gelly Roll White Gel Pen
• Taylored Expressions Bits & Pieces Clear Drip Drops
• 5” x 7” Wheat card base
• 4.5” x 6.5” Cream card panel

The card was made with the following steps:

• Cut the wheat card stock down to a 5” x 7” card base and run through my die cutting machine using the largest of my deckled edge dies.  I ran it through a few different times to cover the entire size of the card base.  I then applied Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the border of card base with an ink blending tool.  Once that was done, I ran the Walnut Stain Distress Ink pad around the edges of the card base to give that aged paper look to it.
• Cut the cream card stock down to a 4.5” x 6.5” card panel.
• Stamped the panel twice with the Cherry Blossoms Bunch stamp and Walnut Stain Distress ink.  I wanted an uncolored background with a vintage grunge look and thought that a darker brown ink would achieve the best result.  I then blended some Antique Linen Distress Ink over the card panel with a blending brush.  Once that was done, I ran the Vintage Photo Distress Ink pad around the edges of the card panel, and then adhered it to the card base with double sided tape.
• Used a scrap piece of cream card stock and Walnut Stain Distress Ink to stamp another set of cherry blossom flowers and leaves.
• Started to color the stamped image with the woodless coloring pencils.  I started with the leaves, going from lightest green to darkest green.  I then colored the flowers.  I started with the areas where I wanted the darkest color, and then started to blend out from there with the other shades.  I them went over the flower petals with the white coloring pencil to further blend and soften the colors.  I used the two yellows in the flower centers, and then added some white accents with the white gel pen.

• Added the vintage grunge look to the flowers by blending some Antique Linen Distress Ink over them.

• Cut out the flowers using the coordinating die, and ran some Vintage Photo Distress Ink along the edge of the image.  Applied double sided foam tape to the back of the image and adhered it to the card.
• Used a small deckled edge rectangle die to cut a sentiment block from wheat card stock.  Stamped the sentiment onto it with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  Added some grunge to it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, and then ran the ink pad around the edges.  Added some double sided foam tape to the back and adhered it to the card.
• Placed some craft glue onto three spots of the card and adhered three clear drip drops.

Voila, the card is done!  This one means a lot to me since Arleen means a lot to me.  I’m going to print out this Paper Play post, put it inside of the card, and give it to her the next time I see her.  I truly hope that she enjoys it!

Card 2 - With Deepest Sympathy

No one ever enjoys creating a sympathy card.  I always feel the emotion behind it even if I don’t know the person who passed.  That said, it doesn’t mean that you can’t add a little twist to one to make it stand out even more.  That’s just what I did for my second card.  The twist that I used on this one was to use patterned paper for the die cut leaves in the background.

I used the following products in making this card:

• Altenew Calming Reverie Stamp and Die Set
  
• Altenew Inline Leaves Die Set
  
• Altenew Sunrise in the Park Stamp Set (for the sentiment)
  
• Altenew Antique Silver Metallic Ink Spray
  
• Altenew Crisp Dye Inks - Charcoal Suit and Jet Black
• Delicata Silvery Shimmer Pigment Ink
• 5” x 7” black card base
• Scrap piece of black card stock
• 4.5” x 6.5” white card panel
• Recollections Silver Mercury Glass card stock
• Taylored Expressions Bits & Pieces Clear Drip Drops

I did the following to create the card:

• Cut the 5” x 7” black card base.  Then cut the 4.5” x 6.5” white card panel and adhered it to the card base with double sided tape.
• Stamped the sentiment onto a scrap piece of black card stock using the Delicata Silvery Shimmer Pigment ink and set it aside.
• Cut the background leaves from the silver mercury glass paper using the Inline Leaves dies.  Added some craft glue to the back of the leaves and adhered them to the card.
• Cut the flower out of scrap black card stock using the coordinating die from the Calming Reverie set.
• Used a paint brush to apply Altenew Antique Silver Ink to the flower base.  TIP:  I used a paint brush in order to control how much I added to the flower base and where I wanted it more concentrated.  I find it much easier than just spaying it onto the object.
• Dried the flower base with my heat tool.
• Used the detail stamp in the Calming Reverie set and jet black ink to added the detailed shading to the flower.
• Stamped the flower center using each of the center stamps and charcoal suit, silvery shimmer pigment ink, and jet black ink.
• Added double sided foam tape to the back of the flower and adhered it to the card base.

• Added three drops of craft glue to the flower and adhered three drip drops.
• Added double sided foam tape to the back of the sentiment and adhered it to the card.

There you have it - a beautiful sympathy card with just a little bit of extra flair from the silver mercury glass paper.

Two very different cards with very different sentiments - but both made just a little extra special with a twist.  I hope you enjoy them!

Until next time, friends . . . be well!