Altenew Educator - Magical Marker Techniques

Hello everyone!  I am back today with another project for my Altenew Educator Level II Certification Classes.  This class was all about Magical Marker Techniques.  I always love it when I find a new way to use products that I already have and this class showed lots of ways to use Alcohol Based Markers.  My particular project was done using Alcohol Markers with Stencils to get a really bright and vivid background for my card.  As always, there are a few birthdays coming up soon and I needed a masculine card in particular for this occasion.  I need a feminine one as well, but I'll have to work on that another day. 

For today's project, I started by using a 4.25 x 5.5 panel of Cougar Digital White Cardstock which is a #100 weight.  It is super smooth and I love how bright the white is.  I also like Xpress-It Blending card, but it is much thinner and I wasn't sure how well it would die cut for a background panel, so I stuck with the Cougar Digital White Cardstock. 

I also pulled out my notebook that I keep all of my stencils in and had a look through to see what I could use with my markers to make a masculine background.  I just slip them down inside a page protector with a label stating the manufacturer and how many stencils are in the particular set.  In this case, I chose the Perfect Plaid Stencil Collection from Papertrey Ink.

I sat down with my drawer of blue markers and a scrap of cardstock to see which colors I would use and to make sure the tones all worked well together.  I used B32 - Pale Blue for the widest stripe, B23 - Phthalo Blue for the skinny three striped line, B24 - Sky for the single middle width stripe and finally B39 - Prussian Blue for the darkest stripe.  In some cases, I rotated the stencil 90 or 180 degrees to get the reverse look to create the plaid. I love how bold and bright this turned out and I think I will be getting more uses out of my stencils from now on.  I enjoy using them, but I don't often reach for them automatically.  I keep them in an easily accessible place so they are handy, but they aren't right at my fingertips like many of my other supplies are such as inks.   I love the look though, so I know you'll be seeing more of them in the future.

Once my background was colored in with my markers, I let it dry completely before heat embossing the "Sending" sentiment directly onto the panel.  I actually triple heat embossed this with silver embossing powder so that it would stand out more from the background.  Using a strip of Dark Indigo Cardstock, I stamped the "Birthday Wishes" sentiment onto that using the same silver embossing powder and adhered it with a skinny strip of foam tape.  This is a super clean and simple look (even with the busy background) and also very graphic which guys always seem to really love. 

Isn't this just a fun and graphic look for a card and imagine all the possibilities with all the various markers available for this look.  There are also multiple ways to rotate the stencils for a variety of different looks. 

I hope you all have a great day and come back soon to see my next project.  I'm getting adjusted to less daylight in the winter months and also the light in the sky is coming from different angles than it did over the summer so I have shorter windows for photographing my images.  But, I'm working it out.  I just really like to have as much natural light as possible and not use flash, so it's taking a little bit of adjustment.  Mid-morning continues to be my favorite time with the best light. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you'll come back soon. 

Altenew ECP - Celebrations: Stencil Techniques

Hi there!  I am continuing on with my Altenew Educator Certification Program classes and today' project features Stencils.

I only have one Altenew Stencil in my collection, the Deco Wallpaper Stencil.  In addition to that, I also don't have any embossing paste so I did the next best thing and used Decofoil Transfer Gel which is like embossing paste except that it's made to be able to add foil to any paper or cardstock you might have.  Okay, I think this is a win-win for me given my love for gold.  But as much as I would have liked it to work perfectly, it did not the first time around so I'll tell you about the mistake I made after getting my background piece all foiled and ready to make a card with.

I decided I was going to die cut the panel as I normally do and when I did, all of the marks and scratches in my cutting plate left their impression on my foil!  Darn it all!  I've run it back through the Minc in an attempt to flatten it back out and it is better, but it will never look as good as it did when I first ran it through.  Again, this is one of those things that if I'm putting it out there with my name on it, I want it to be clean and it just isn't so I decided on a do-over this morning.  It doesn't look to bad in the smaller photo here, but when you enlarge it, you can sure see all the little cuts and nicks from the cutting plate.

While the Transfer Gel dries on my do-over, I decided to start working on my post.  My little girls (doggies) are laying in my bed this morning because all they did was whine at me and interrupt my work flow yesterday so I'm making them stay in bed this morning while I try to get a little work done.

Last weekend when my grandson was here, I was showing him how to do Ink Blending so I had the lovely pink and purple Ombré  background already done and I decided to put the transfer gel on to it to get a really gorgeous background.  The thought process was good, but I forgot about that one important detail. I needed to use a clean cutting plate to avoid the nicks and scratches.  I also ran the negative of the foil through with a piece of black toner paper just to show how you could use the negative if you wanted to.  This particular piece got bent during shipping, so I won't use it, but you sure could.

When you apply the Transfer Gel through your stencil, it's important to work fast, and to clean up as quickly as you can also.  If you let the paste dry on your stencil or tools, you will never get it off.  If this was something I was planning to use a lot, I'd definitely have to get a box of baby wipes to keep on hand.  My guest bath is next door to my studio, so I ran and threw the stencil into a sink of warm water which makes it really easy to get clean when you have a couple of minutes.  You should also wipe up your craft sheet and I like to give mine a thorough wipe down with Rubbing Alcohol which is what I also use to clean all of the glass in my studio and to clean my craft mat after playing with alcohol inks or doing ink blending or any of the other messy stuff that I like to do in the studio.

Additionally, one of the mistakes I made yesterday was to use blue Painters Tape and when I took it off the back of my panel, it took a lot of the paper with it.  I like the Yellow Frog Tape for Delicate surfaces and even with that, I stick it to the palm of my hand first before using it.  I've never had it tear anything which is why I started using it versus the blue painters tape.  It really tears up Bristol Paper. 

I taped the stencil to my paper on the back side and then taped that to my craft mat on the top right and lower left corners.  Using my largest Palette Knife from my set, I spread a nice even coat onto my already-die-cut panel.  See how smart I am?  I always try to learn something from my mistakes, even if it's just a better, faster, more efficient or easier way of doing something.

Once my Transfer Gel was dry (it becomes clear) Then I ran it through the Minc on Setting #3.  You can see here the difference between the two.

This is the one I tried to flatten but each time I ran it through the Minc, I'd lose some of the smoothness and shine.  It's still pretty, but I wanted to redo it for my class project.

I don't normally put so many photos in a post, but I was having a really hard time showing how smooth and dimensional the Transfer Gel goes on because it's reflecting the small pattern in the fabric of the top I'm wearing so I've even included one where I am holding it. Yeah, I know my nails don't look too good, but all the medicine I take really takes a toll on my nails and my skin.  My nails split long ways and across so I try to keep them short.  Nail polish seems to make it worse. It's just one of the side effects of so much medicine. That's one of the reasons I don't do videos.

Anyway, I'm putting in photos here at a variety of angles.  You'll have to let me know if you like more pictures or if you think one or two is sufficient.

Transfer Gel seems to be a similar consistency as Embossing/Texture Paste but I think it is a bit thinner although I don't know for sure.  It's really easy to get a nice thin coat on your project and doesn't take too long to dry.  In both cases here, I walked away and did other stuff while I let it dry for 20-30 minutes.

Because the foil is so shiny (and showy), I decided to keep the focal point clean and simple. I used a combination of Scotch 3D Foam Tape and Scrapbook Adhesives Thin 3D Foam Squares to adhere the floral images with previously stamped images from the Build-A-Flower Rose and the sentiment is from Beautiful Day Stamp Set.  I hope you've learned a little from my post about what did and did not work.  I've linked my supplies for your convenience (Affiliate Links may be used).

Altenew Antique Gold Crisp Embossing Powder Shop at: ALT	Altenew Beautiful Day Shop at: SSS | ALT	Altenew Build-A-Flower Rose Shop at: ALT	Altenew Crisp Ink Sweet Dreams Collection Shop at: ALT
Altenew Deco Wallpaper Stencil Shop at: ALT	Altenew Sweet Dreams Collection Shop at: ALT	Cuttlebug Die Cutting Machine Shop at: SSS	Decofoil Transfer Sheets Bulk Pack Shop at: SSS
Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Shop at: SSS	Ranger Non-Stick Craft Sheet Shop at: SSS	Scotch 3M Foam Tape Shop at: SSS	Scrapbook Adhesives Thin 3D Foam Squares Shop at: SSS
Teflon Bone Folder Shop at: SSS	Thermoweb Decofoil Transfer Gel Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Tonic Paper Trimmer Shop at: SSS	Versamark Ink Shop at: SSS
Viva Decor Palette Knife Set Shop at: SSS	Wagner Heat Tool Shop at: SSS	WPLUS9 Gift Card Layers Designer Dies Shop at: SSS