Altenew Academy's Educator Certification Program Participation | All About Layer 3

Hello crafty friends, I am super excited to announce that I have the honor of being part or the latest group of talented individuals selected to be part of the next round of the Altenew Educator Certification Program. As part of the program participants have to take 10 different classes in two different levels. And we have to share our projects ("homework") from those classes on our blogs/social media. So, for my first class in the program I picked the fun All About Layer 3 Class. So, over the next few months you will be seeing fun cards from these classes that I am creating for my homework.

Altenew Academy's Educator Certification Program Participation | All About Layer 3

I started in order as they were listed in the classes to take. Which is what made the most scene to me, and I needed the refresher on using my Altenew layering stamps anyway. And I am super happy I started with this class. I learned so much from this free class that was so helpful while doing my homework. For my homework I created three different cards using supplies I had in my stash and I am going to share them with you today. And talk about what I learned with each card.

Build-A-Flower Canterbury Bells Layering Stamp Set:

For my first card in the class I created a clean and simple card design using the Build-A-Flower: Canterbury Bells Layering Stamp Set. I wanted to create a card that had a pop of color and that would create a little micro-scene as well. I learned in the class that you want to pick three points on your first stamped image and line the other layers up with those points. Most of the time you start with the lightest color ink and work up, but you can also start with the outline images as well and sometimes it works better. It's a matter of finding which way works best for each image.

For my colors I used Altenew's Crisp Dye Inks and a few other colors I have in my stash. For my red Canterbury Bells I used my Frosty Pink, Coral Berry, & Ruby Red Ink Cubes.

For the blue Canterbury Bells I used Crisp Dye Inks in the following colors; Ice Burg, Ultramarine, and Azurite. For the yellow I used Lemon Whip, Sunshine, and Sweet Musturd from Pinkfresh Studios because I am limited in the Crisp Dye Inks I have. I will have a order coming soon with some of the New Fresh Die Inks to add to my ink stash. So, I am excited to share those with you soon.

And for all the layers of the stem and leaves I used the following Crisp Dye Inks; Frayed Leaf, Frosest Glades, and Evergreen.

Another thing that I learned in the class and put to place on my card designs was to add the floral and leaves images in odd numbers in a triangle pattern for a more interesting and natural looking arrangement.

Layering Colors & a Touch of Grey:

On my second card I used the same set of Crisp Dye Inks to achieve the red violet colors of inks on this clean and simple card design. For the layering I started out with the lightest colors of inks from Lapis Lazuli Crisp Dye Inks, and the Red Cosmos Crisp Dye Inks. To start off I inked up the first layer of the Canterbury Bells with Iceberg and then cleaned the stamp and without removing it inked it up again with Frosty Pink to get the light red-violet on the card. I repeated this process until I had stamped all three layers with the different colors from the ink cube sets.

I then added the green inks (as listed above) to the leaves and stem of the Canterbury Bells. Once I had the single flower stamped on my card front I remembered in the class that had talked about adding a layer of gray ink blending behind a floral element to draw interest.

So, I pulled out some small stamps from the Canterbury Bells Build-a-flower Stamp Set and added the two small stems of flowers around it, but stamped them in Evening Gray Crisp Dye Ink. I arranged the smaller stems so that the flowers were pointing towards my Canterbury Bell. All that was left was to stamp my sentiment in Obsidian Black Pigment Ink.

Stargazer Lilly Layering Stamp Set:

For my last card I used the Build-a-flower Stargazer Stamp Set and stamped out four of this gorgeous lily in my Stampwheel using Frosty Pink, Coral Berry, Rubellite, and Ruby Red inks. While lining each layer up in my Stampwheel; I made sure to line up the same three points on each layer of the lily stamps for perfect layering.

For the leaves I only used Frayed Leaf and Forest Glades Crisp Dye Inks. To get the darkest green on the leaves I double stamped the Forest Glades to get a darker color. I let each layer of the ink dry a little and soak into my Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80 lbs. Cardstock before applying the next ink layer. This allowed me to get a darker shade of the same ink color without it soaking to much into the paper and fading back to much.

After had all the stamping completed it was time to take the coordinating die and cut everything out. For my card I remembered to arrange all the liles going off the edge of my embossed background panel (I used the Wicker Texture 3D Embossing Folder for the dry embossing) to create an opening and to take advantage of the numbers of flowers I had to get the most of them and to make the card look fuller.

Once the flowers and leaves were attached to the card front I used my snips and cut off any excess that was over hanging the card front. I then attached the cut pieces back onto the card front to fill in any open areas on the card front. This little trick I picked up in the class allowed for a fuller looking arrangement.

By keeping the floral images only around the top and bottom it allowed me a place to; (1) add a little more texture and movement to the card and (2) allowed some white space on the card for the eye to rest before being pulled towards the next section of bright color.

Thanks for dropping by today and going on this exciting new adventure with me as I take part in this exciting next chapter in my card making journey. I know it's going to a fun, hard, and sometimes challenging ride but I am excited to see what the Altenew Educator Program has in store. Until next time happy crafting.

If you have any questions please leave a comment below and I will be happy to answer them for you.

(Wondering what I used in this video/project? Everything is linked to multiple sources in the thumbnails at the end of this post, or in the text below. Compensated affiliate links used when possible).

Materials Used:

Here you will find the list of supplies that I used to create today's card. All supplies are linked to supply sources below. Compensated affiliate links may be used at no cost to you.

Happy Stampin'

Rick Adkins