AECP Seasonal Scene Building Oversized Scenes / A Traditional Christmas

Its that time of year, when the “ber” months roll around, to start thinking of Christmas cards. For this AECP Seasonal Scene Building project, I took inspiration from those vintage cards, you know the ones with traditional scenes, mostly done with some gold foiling details. For this card, I was inspired by the Advent Wreath .

I went through my stash and found several stamps sets from Altenew that I could use for my scene. The first thing I did was pull out all the stamps sets and arranged them on a card base. Then I use an acrylic stamp block and proceeded to stamp out the images just in black ink to see if the stamps would work well together.

Once I was happy with the layout, I then started to work on the background. I wanted the candle to have a “glow” around it, so I ink blended Altenew Fresh Lemon Crisp Dye Ink at the center of the cardstock, then use a slightly darker ink, Maple Yellow on the outer part of the “glow”. And to provide contrast to the “glow”, I ink blended Caribbean Sky Ink closest to the yellow and a slightly darker Persian Blue for the top and the sides.

Then I proceeded to stamp all my images from Altenew Holiday Bow stamp set onto a plain white card stock. I used all the images in the stamp set except for the Poinsettia stamp. I wanted to mimic the “foiling” on traditional christmas cards so I used Altenew Antique Gold embossing powder to add the details to my images.

List of inks I used: Bow: Ruby Red & Grapevine (Base stamp) / Outline Detail of Bow (Gold Embossing), Greenery: Parrot, Olive, Moss & Mountain Pine (Leaves) / Branches (Gold embossing), Berries: Ruby red / Branches (Gold Embossing). After stamping and heat embossing my images, I fussy cut them all out as I didnt have the coordinating dies.

For the glass candleholder, I used the rounded vase from the Versatile Vases stamp set and heat embossed it using Ranger Platinum Embossing powder. The votive candle is from the Candlelight stamp set which I also heat embossed with Antique Gold embossing powder. I used Coral Berry Crisp Dye Ink for the candle itself.

As for the candle flame, I wanted it to be a little transluscent, so I stamped the flame, also from the Candlelight ight stamp set, in layers — Maple Yellow for the base, Firebrick for the middle layer and Ruby Red for the top. Then I sprinkled clear embossing powder on top and heat set it so the images do not smear and also to give it a shiny finish. The wick stamp is also from the stamp set. I fussy cut the flame and adhered it on top of the wick.

For the table top, I used Rocky Shore, Mocha ink blended Crisp Dye Inks. Then I masked of the top part of the image and stamped the wood grain detail with the Concord & 9th Barnwood Background Stamp using Espresso Crisp Dye Ink. Altenew has a similar stamp set called Wood Pallet which I will also link below.

To create more texture, I used the Altenew Pure White Ink Spray just by flicking the paint onto the background for a “snowy” feel. After it was dry, I die cut the background using the Wonky Rectangle Die from Simon Says Stamp and mounted it on a matte gold cardbase from a Hero Arts kit. I heat embossed the sentiment from the Altenew Build-a-Flower Poinsettia Stamp set using Antique Gold Embossing powder. I adhered it to a 4.25″X5.5″ top folding notecard.

The last step I did was assemble and adhered the elements on the base of the candle, popping up the bow using foam tape. I also adhered gold and clear sequins to finish it off.

The AECP Seasonal Scene Building class really challenged me and this card was a very involved one. Having said that, it is what I love about the Altenew Academy AECP program. The program challenges me to go out of my comfort zone, try things I won’t normally try and in turn, enhance my cardmaking skills. There are lots of inspiration and the people behind it are all so wonderful and encouraging. I highly recommend it!

Thank you so much for stopping by.

‘Til next time!

❤️

Anna

Note: I am affiliated with some online stores including Altenew, Concord & 9th and Hero Arts. If you use any of the links above, I get a small commission from these wonderful shops at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!