AECP Beyond Basics Backgrounds

Today, I worked on cards for my Level 2 Course - Beyond Basics Backgrounds taught by Lydia Evans.  There were 6 different techniques that were taught.

The first card showcases water bleaching.  Very simple but really effective and pretty, I think.  Down below you will see another card that I attempted to do water bleaching on but on that card I used Altenew Fresh Dye ink and the bleaching isn't as obvious.  So, I tried again and this time I used Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks which are water reactive.  The lesson did encourage trying different inks to see the different effects we would get.  The oxide inks really respond well to the water bleaching technique.

I chose three colors to ink blend on a white cardstock panel.  Then I used the Altenew Flowing Drops stencil for the water bleaching.  I placed the stencil over the top of the ink blended card panel and then spritzed with water.  I let it sit on the panel for a few seconds then blotted with a paper towel.  I checked to see how effective the bleaching was by gently lifting the stencil off a corner of the cardstock.  I wanted to see if I could get a stronger result so I replaced the stencil and spritzed again.

Once, I removed the stencil I got a beautiful result. I used some foam tape to mount this panel onto black cardstock.  Unrelated to this class but a GREAT tip is to take some time to create a bunch of sentiments at one time and keep them on hand.  I used my hot foiling system along with Altenew Essential Sentiments Hot Foil plates and accompanying die set and Sweet Sentiments hot foil plates and diet set and created a lot of sentiments - white foil on black.  I then went through that stash and found the sentiments that I used on this card.  And the last thing I did was drop sequins on the card and glued them where they landed.

    

This card is the one I initially tried to do the water bleaching technique on.  I cropped the picture and you can see in the above picture that the water bleaching is quite subtle.  The card panel was created by taking my ink cubes in Coral Red, Ruby Red and Orange Cream and just dragging them across the cardstock to create the colored stripes.  I use those specific colors in order to follow the Altenew October Inspiration Challenge.  

And the panel itself was leftover from creating the below Sending Prayers card for the Beyond Basics Backgrounds class - Lesson 5 or 6 - inlay die cuts.

 

I used the Stripe Leaf Cover Die and cut it out of white cardstock.  After removing all the little bits I placed the die cut cardstock onto a piece of Altenew Double sided adhesive sheet.  Then I used the Stripe Leaf Cover plate and die cut the previously created striped cardstock.  Once I had the die cut cardstock I took it out of the machine carefully so that I didn't dislodge any of the little pieces.  I aligned the cardstock very carefully over the white die cut cardstock with the adhesive and gently pushed the color pieces into the white cardstock - this created the inlay design.  By using the double-sided adhesive and gently pressing the pieces in I didn't have to do as much fiddly work of placing the pieces individually.  I completed this card by going through my stash and finding DMC embroidery thread that was a color match and some bronze thread and coiled that under the sentiment.  The sentiment is from Versatile Greetings 2 and the layered piece was again colored by dragging an ink cube across it.  I really like how this card turned out.  I love the colors from the challenge and the overall simplicity of the design.

 My final card is also a inlaid design.  This is the first inlaid design that I tried today.  It was an idea I had been kicking around for a while - using inlay with the Edged Wildflower die.

I used glitter/shimmer card stock in blue and pink. I had some navy shimmer pieces leftover from the first time I used the die - I had kept for just such an occasion.  Once I pieced everything together I splattered with a little antique gold spray and added the previously mentioned sentiments from my stash.  The celebrate sentiment is actually the negative of the hot foil technique.  I think this card looks much better in person but it is not my favorite use of the inlay technique.  But I did want to show that not every card is a winner - lol.  Still it is pretty cute.

Let me know what you think.