Paper and Fiber Arts: AECP Level 2 Course

Color Your Day

There are ten courses to complete for the Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP) in Level 2. I just finished the course, Color Your Day, taught by Therese Clavird. One of her suggested guidelines when choosing colors for a card project is to use a 70-20-10 ratio. What that means is that 70% of the project is one color (or color family,) 20% of the card is another color, and then about 10% is for the 'pop' of color or accent color. This isn't a hard and fast rule, just one that she employs in some of her work. It seems like an easy formula to remember and one that I was interested in trying out.

Using a Stamp Set with Many Techniques

If you saw the first two posts related to the Level 2 courses here and here, you will notice that I am using the same stamp set on all three posts. It is the Build-A-Flower: Primrose Layering Stamp and coordinating die set from Altenew. The reason for this is that I thought it would be fun to see how many ways I can use the same set. If you are new to stamping, you may wonder about the versatility of using stamps for different looks. We all want to get the most out of our supplies and I am exploring several ways to use this set through the AECP Level 2 Course. With multi-layered stamping the outline stamps are usually stamped in black. Instead, I opted to stamp the outline with a dark color of the color family used on either the floral or leaf images. The primrose outline is stamped with Cosmic Berry ink and the leaf's outline is stamped using Forest Glades ink. The other layers are stamped from lightest to darkest depending on the number of stamps for each image. The flower has three layers plus the outline and the leaf has two plus the outline. The images were die-cut and arranged on the card front along with a stamped sentiment from the set.

To continue with a softer look, the sentiment was stamped once again using the darkest color of the Rose Petal family, Cosmic Berry. I then traced over the letters with a Stardust Gelly Roll pen to give them a bit of sparkle. In this card, approximately 70% is the Rose Petal family, 20% is white, and the last 10% is green with a touch of light blue for the layered base card. Let me know if you try this formula or if you have a different one that you like when it comes to choosing colors.

Have a great day!