The AECP workshop

Over the past one and a half years I have been working on my Altenew Educator Certification Program, I have taken my time one could say since I know several other people who have gone through the program quicker than that. I am glad that the AECP allowed me to pace my progress, combining my hobby with my full time job!

Some of the cards made by the participants in my workshop

Having completed 25 Altenew Academy Classes and 2 challenges set by AECP coordinators Virginia Lu and Erum Tasneem I was as ready as I could be for the final challenge - to plan, prepare and conduct a two hour cardmaking workshop.

 

We made three cards in the workshop using two Altenew stampset; Ditsy Prints and Celebrate in different ways. The first one was the hello card above, designed to teach how to
- stamp using photo polymer stamps and an acrylic block
- stamp a background
- stamp layering using several ink colors.

Supplies for Hello card

·       Ditsy Print stamp set from Altenew

·       Dye inks; black, green and three blue inks – choose a light, a medium and a dark

·       Card base 5 ½ x 4 ¼ inches

·       Card blank 5 ¼ x 4 inches

·       Die cut hello sentiment

Stamping

·       Pick up the flower cluster outline image with your acrylic block

·       Stamp the image in black towards the middle of your card blank

·       Turn the stamp and stamp the image several times around the center image to create a pattern

·       Do not overlap the images, leave some white space!

·       Stamp over the edges so it looks like this is a piece cut from a larger patterned paper

Coloring with the layering stamps – first layer

·       Use the most solid flower layer

·       Lay it on top of the stamped image to find the position

·       Pick it up with your acrylic block

·       Use the lightest blue to stamp/color the flower cluster

Second layer

·       Use the second most solid layer

·       Line up and pick up stamp as above

·       Use the medium color to stamp all the flower clusters

Third layer

·       Use the third or least solid (shadow) layer

·       Line up as above

·       Use the darkest color to stamp all the flower clusters

Stamping the leaves

·       Stamp one or two of the leaf stamps in green ink using the same line up technique to find the correct position

Glue the card blank on to your card base, press down for a few seconds or leave under a book.

Glue the hello word at an angle, press down and leave to dry.

The second card introduced the participants to heat embossing which is such a fun thing when you see it for the first time!

Supplies for kraft heat embossed card

·       Ditsy Print stamp set from Altenew

·       Embossing ink

·       Card base 5 ½ x 4 ¼ inches - white

·       Card blank 5 ¼ x 4 inches - kraft

·       White detail embossing powder

·       White pencil

Stamping – the sentiment

·       Line up sentiment along the lines on your acrylic block

·       Pick up sentiment with second block, also along one of the lines

·       Treat paper with embossing buddy or corn flower applied with a brush

·       Ink up sentiment with embossing ink

·       Carefully stamp down using grid lines to make sure sentiment is straight

·       Cover with embossing powder

·       Pour off excess embossing powder onto a sheet of paper and funnel back into jar

·       Melt the embossing powder using a heat gun

Stamping – the flower cluster

·       Pick up the flower cluster outline image with your acrylic block

·       Ink up the image with embossing ink

·       Carefully stamp down above the sentiment

·       Cover with embossing powder

·       Pour off embossing powder onto a sheet of paper and funnel back into jar

·       Melt the embossing powder with a heat gun

Coloring with Polychromos pencils

·       Color the image lightly with a white or other pale colored pencils

Glue the card blank on to your card base, press down for a few seconds or leave under something heavy.

The final card used a negative heart mask as a focal point and using one of the layering stamps to create a different flower pattern.

Supplies for masked card

·       Ditsy Print and Celebrate stamp sets from Altenew

·       Four gradually darker ink colors – any color family from Altenew

·       Card base 5 ½ x 4 ¼ inches - white

·       Black sentiment strip cut from black card stock ¼ inch

·       Embossing ink

·       White detail embossing powder

Masking the heart

·       Cut a heart shape out of contact paper

·       Apply the negative mask onto card base so heart is centered slightly towards the top of the card

Stamping – the flower cluster

·       Pick up the second flower cluster layering image with your acrylic block

·       Ink up the image with the lightest color ink

·       Stamp down in the top left corner of the heart

·       Carefully wipe off extra ink from the contact paper with a paper towel

·       Ink up with next darker shade and turning the stamp the other way, stamp as closely as possible without overlapping

·       Continue stamping in gradually darker colors until the heart is filled

·       Remove the mask (keep it for another card)

Stamping – the sentiment

·       Line up sentiment along the lines on your acrylic block

·       Pick up sentiment with second block, also along one of the lines

·       Treat black sentiment strip with embossing buddy or corn flower applied with a brush

·       Ink up sentiment with embossing ink

·       Carefully stamp down to make sure sentiment is straight

·       Cover with embossing powder

·       Pour off embossing powder onto a sheet of folded paper and funnel back into jar

·       Heat the embossing

·       Trim the sentiment strip to the correct size

·       Glue down sentiment strip on to the heart

Showing off some of the beautiful cards made during the workshop

As I ended up having 8 participants in my workshop I did not have enough room to conduct the workshop from my home so I reached out to my former employer who allowed me to use their beautiful office in Arlington, VA. I have worked for Mercuri Urval in the US and in France for many years and the company is almost family to me so it felt very fitting to be back at their office!

The room is setup for stamping!

Each participant received all the materials and detailed instructions to create the three cards during the workshop.

I also brought along a selection of Altenew stamp sets and cards to show some of the many possibilities of what you can make with inks, stamps and paper.

 

Workshop in full swing - everyone hard at work creating.

Here are some of my lovely participants showing off their favorite cards at the end of the workshop - I love all their cards!

My participants were mostly beginners to stamping but certainly crafters so even though this class was an ambitious plan I felt that it was doable. They all did an awesome job!

I should like to particularly thank Virginia Lu who observed and participated in the workshop over video, and who has been instrumental to my journey with the AECP program. It was a pleasure meeting you virtually Virginia and I think you'll have some new followers at your blog and Instagram!

I was also happy to meet Altenew Operations Director Nicole Picadura as she was able to take time out of her busy schedule to come in and say hello.

A special thank you to my husband Jean-Michel who kept the Google Hangout open and filmed the duration of the workshop as well as taking stills for this blogpost. As usual I could not have done it without you...

Thank you to my former boss and good friend Chris and his son Drake for spoiling us all with pizza and salads after the workshop - everyone was ravenous so this was a perfect end to the evening!

And most of all, thank you my lovely and studious participants; Meghan, Linda, Dawn, Sarah, Gretchen, Lauren and my dear friends Darcey and Sterling!

Drake drew a lovely picture of the room, I thought he drew the cards on the credenza but it's in fact the pizza boxes - food is more important than cards to a seven year old!

Big hugs,

Helen