Altenew Educator Certification Program

Hi all!

This blog post documents the workshop I teached last week as part of the Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP).

My journey through AECP has been a long and fun one! - and this workshop marks the final step in the program. Here I will share the process, the cards and the projects created by the participants.

I wanted to include some favorite products and techniques in my workshop. The main focuses were

coloring with stencils and blending brushes
adding drama and details to your design using fineliners

We made two cards together using Build-A-Garden: Through the Tulips set from Altenew.

AECP håndlaget kort med stensiler og teknikk med håndtegnede detaljer

We started with basic ink blending with stencils on our stamped images. I used Altenew Dye Inks from Sweet Dreams for the flowers and Nature's Wonders for the leaves. Outlines and sentiments are stamped with Obsisdian Pigment Ink.

We colored in and cut out two similar flower clusters and arranged them together on our card for a fuller bouquet. We added some black splatters and a small sentiment from the stamp set.

Håndlaget kort med tulipaner fargelagt med blekk og stensiler

Our second card was inspired by my love for Zentangle. This art form/ drawing technique is so enjoyable and easy to include in our cardmaking - and can give our stamps new life and lots of added versatility.

We started this card with ink blending with our stencils in pink and red tones from Martian Terrain Dye Inks.

With a Micron 01 fineliner we added lines to the petals and the leaves. Our lines were guided by the shape of the petal, the inked lines from the stenciling and also from the black stamped lines. We did not aim for perfection, but rather detail and interest.

AECP workshop med ny teknikk med håndtegnede linjer og ekstra detaljer

Our final step with our pen ties it all beautifully together as we add more ink in the corners and where lines meet. This technique in Zentangle is called rounding or weighting and it gives great contrast and drama to our flowers.

The technique is easy to use and is suitable for any flower stamp with medium to large flowers.

Detaljer som viser detaljene tegnet med penn for ekstra kontrast og definisjon

When happy with the extra detailing, we cut out the flower and adhered it to a vellum circle with foam tape. We stamped our sentiment and finally glued flower and vellum to our card base.

Participants have kindly shared their cards from the workshop: