Let It Shine - AECP

 

I am nearing the end of Level 1 of my AECP courses.  Let It Shine taught by Carissa Wiley is the 9th course out of 10 that I have completed thus far.

For the first two cards I chose to use the Mushroom Garden layering stencil and Mushroom Greetings stamp set with matching dies.

This lesson was all about using different methods to add a little glitz and shine to our projects.  For the card above I used the stencils from the Mushroom Garden set to color in my mushrooms and fill up my card panel.  There are 4 stencils in this set.  I used several colors - a lighter color and then back over the same stencil with a dark color to add some shading.  The final layer was the dots and veining of the leaves - this layer I did with Versamark ink which is a very sticky ink and useful for heat embossing.  Once I had everything inked up I poured gold detail embossing powder over the top and ensured everything had sufficient powder before using my heat gun.  I really do like the shine added by just embossing the last detailed area of the stencils.  I used a sentiment from the Mushroom Greetings stamp set - stamped it in Versamark and again used Gold detail embossing powder.  I die cut the image plus 3 more layers to add dimension.  I then placed the sentiment layers on a piece of vellum and fussy cut around it.  I think this provided just a little separation from the main panel.  This is a very fun stencil to use and I am looking forward to using it again.

My 2nd card utilizes the same stamp set, stencils, ink colors 

gold embossing powder.  The difference is I used kraft cardstock as my panel.  This time I only used the leaves and details stencils - stencils 3 & 4 - again I used Versamark and gold embossing powder for the leaf veining and detail dots.  I took the main image from the Mushroom Greetings stamp set and heat emossed it in gold as well.  This time instead of using ink to color my image I used colored pencils and highlighted with a white gel pen.  I embossed the sentiment on kraft cardstock and then added some ink blending onto the sentiment and the main panel.  In order to make the sentiment pop visually from the card I took my Altenew Metallic Watercolor paint in gold and added brush marks across the bottom right of the panel before adding the sentiment.  I also used my paint brush and the gold metallic paint to paint the edges of the card panel.  I really do love how this card turned out and from this side angle you can really see the gold shining through.

As you can see from the last picture of this card a straight on photo doesn't really show the gold very well.  In real life it is really shiny and shimmery.

For my last card I used my Altenew Wanderlust stamp set and both the Altenew 36 color Watercolor Palette and the Metallic Watercolor Palette.  I did a wash over my watercolor paper and just brush greens and blues across the paper until I was satisfied with the color I achieved.  Over the top of that I added a bit of the metallic blue and green paints to add a nice shimmer to the panel. With a flat watercolor brush I took some of the dark green watercolor paint and loosely painted some trees on the bottom half of the panel.  After I painted the watercolored 

trees I added a little bit of a brighter blue, darker blue and purple color to provide grounding for the project.  After I let the panel dry I came back and stamped the trees from the Wanderlust stamp set in Altenew Evergreen ink.  I added a strip of strong adhesive just under the trees and used some glitter that I found in my stash that was a similar shade to the color I achieved with the watercolor paints.  my final steps were to stamp a sentiment in Versamark on vellum, cover with silver detail embossing powder and heat.  I rounded the corners of the sentiment strip and added a little metallic watercolor paint to the back of the vellum.  By adding that little bit of paint it makes it easier to read the sentiment and gives you a great way to add adhesive that won't be seen through the vellum.  The point of this lesson was "a little dab will do ya" - just a little shimmer or shine adds a lot to your project.  Again, in real life this card is very shiny and I love how it turned out.

Let me know your thoughts.