I'm back in the saddle with ALTENEW and AECP!!

Hi all!

Welp...I'm back at it again!  I'm starting back on the Altenew Educator Certificate Program!  I stopped when COVID hit because I gave my art studio to my daughter as she navigated through the struggles of what was happening.  I figured since I stopped, I needed to re-apply to be a part of the program...but low and behold, I didn't have to!  The great thing about the program is you can work at your own pace.  Who knew my pace was long a tedious...

Today I'm sharing my first class back into the program called In the Mood for Color taught by Stephanie Klauck and Aditi Madajan.  If you know anything about me, I'm all about color, sparkle and shine so this class is a great fit for me.  Color is such an important aspect of art and creating, it helps generate an ambiance or mood for the message you are conveying.  This was an important aspect in my former career as a florist, event and interior designer, a wrong color can make or break the ambiance of the space. This same concept can be said for cards, I mean, we've all experienced when something just isn't 'right' and realize the solution would be a different color?  

For my project, I choose to focus on an earthy yellow color palette.  While yellow generally evokes feelings of cheer and energy...think of a bright sunny day...however, this monochromatic color palette of yellow ochres from the Fall Harvest Crisp Dye Ink color family invokes a feeling of a moody fall afternoon.  

The card started with an ivory card stock base for everything, undertones are important and the soft creamy-ness of ivory blends well with the inks of Fall Harvest.  Although fall officially began a few days ago, we still have warm days here in Ohio, so the Mushroom Collage die set was a perfect match to this color theme.  All the dies from this set were die cut from the ivory card stock.  The mushrooms were kept as pale as possible with just some light ink blending on the recessed areas.  A technique discussed in class 4, Woodless Color Pencils were used to accentuate these areas further.  

The background panel and the stylized leaf dies were ink blended with the same Fall Harvest colors along with Mocha and Espresso from the Coffee Break color group.  Deepening the center of the panel allows the light color of the mushrooms to pop off the background.  The background was splattered with some ink of each of the colors mentioned before to give the panel interest.  All the die cuts were then assembled and adhered to the panel.  More splatters in Butternut, Pumpkin Pie and Espresso inks were added once everything was assembled.  In keeping with moody fall feeling, the 'miss you so mush' sentiment from the Mushroom Greetings stamp set was the perfect complement.  The sentiment was heat embossed with clear embossing powder to keep the ivory color, then ink blended with all of the colors to create the same depth of color on the background.  After looking at this card on the screen, if I were to create it again, I would add some of the Mocha and Espresso to the rocks under the mushrooms to help them recede behind the mushroom bases a bit more...

Now here's a little tip I've been doing for years with my embellishments...if you don't have the exact shade of enamel dot, sequin or gem, just add a little alcohol ink to it in the color you want.  Perfect match!

Off to do another class...have a colorful day!