See Ya Layer! & The AECP Beyond Basic Backgrounds

I passed Level 1 of the Altenew AECP program! Woo hoo! Now I’m on to Level 2 and this is the first lesson: Beyond Basic Backgrounds given by the the super talented Linda Evans. I encourage you to check out the AECP program if you want to take your cardmaking to another level!

For this project, I took one of the lessons from the class and created my own spin on it using Altenew layering cover dies. Altenew has a wonderful variety of cover dies that you can create stencils with.

I used thick cardstock and die cut one panel each from the Layered Snowflake Stars Cover Die A and B.

On a white card base, I put down the Layered Snowflake Star B stencil. For the background I used the colors from the Cool Summer Night Crisp Die Ink Collection. With a blending brush, I blended Ocean Waves Crisp Die Ink starting at the top until just about the mid point. Then I blended the next darkest color called Dusk, starting at the top, but only going down a little over 1/4th of the way.

I removed stencil B, then lined up stencil A, then proceeded to blend in the darkest color, Desert Night, just concentrating more at the top part of the card.

After I was satisfied with the blending, I lifted the stencil to see the result. I found the white dots on the blended background were too stark so I softly blended in the lightest ink, Sea Glass.

To give the background a little more of a textured look, I sprayed a light mist of shimmer water (water mixed with Perfect Pearls).

I cut down the card to size and matted it with silver mirror cardstock and adhered it to a white card base. The sentiment “With Love” is from Mama Elephant Occasional Labels stamp set.

The flower on my card is from the Altenew Ornamental Flower stamp set. For the flower, I used colors from the Rose Petal collection: Rose Quartz, Puffy Heart, Purple Wine & Cosmic Berry, then Cool Summer Night collection for the center of the flower to match the stenciled back ground. The leaves are done using inks from Green Fields (Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades & Evergreen) and Rock (Limestone, Silverstone & Industrial Diamond) Collections.

Here are more close ups of the card I created.

Now, what did I do with the ink blended stencil? It was such a shame to let it go to waste so I created another card with it!

Hope this inspires you to stretch your supplies by turning your layered cover dies (or any cover die for that matter) into stencils.

If you would like to learn more background techniques, sign up for Altenew Academy Beyond Basic Background which I will link below.

Thank you for your time and Happy Holidays!

‘Til next time! See ya layer!

Anna

Supplies used:

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!