AECP Color your Day

Today’s project features lessons learned in the Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP) course, Color Your Day, taught by Therese Calvird. The primary focus of this course was provide guidance on the various ways to be inspired by color in your projects and to use color in ways that are harmonious and yet still reflect your personal style. The tips I leveraged from the class in my project are below:

• Using objects around you for inspiration,
• Applying the 70/20/10 color rule in a layout, and
• Using different coloring mediums

I knew I wanted to create a no line coloring card for this assignment (…mostly because I just love to color) and thought the Prim Peonies Stamp and Die Set would be the perfect start. Next up… deciding on a color palette. I pulled up a color wheel, thought about different color combinations, and I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do. I then looked around my craft room until I stumbled upon a piece of plaid pattern paper laying on my desk. Once I saw it, I knew I wanted to go with yellows, and teals.

In Lesson 3 of the class, Therese went over a ratio she often used in card making 70/20/10, which means to use 70% of one color, 20% of the paper for the second, and 10% for the third, though they don’t have to be in these exact amounts. So for my card, my 70% feature color … or thereabouts… was to be the yellows and golds in my flower petals. For my 20% color, I was going with the teal color which I featured in the leaves and background, but since leaves are typically green and I was looking to create a somewhat conventional flower, I decided to combine my blue-green Copic markers with similar shades in the green family to create the color I was looking to achieve.

I started the card by first stamping the image in a sunshine yellow dye ink I knew would match my yellow and gold Copic choices. Once I laid down color with my alcohol markers, I then grabbed a few Prismacolor pencils to enhance my shadows and my highlights. The white Prismacolor pencil is always just magic! Once colored, I die cut my flower and set it aside to start on my background.

I created a make-shift rectangle stencil using a frame die and a piece of white cardstock. I then stenciled a rectangle using Distress Oxide Bundled Sage and Iced Spruce, using the darker color on the edges of the rectangle and leaving the center lighter. I then grabbed my Altenew Metallic Watercolor Pan Set and a #6 round brush to splatter some large drops of gold on to the background and adding a little sparkle. Where was the third color to represent my 10%… Well that was the white border I left around my background!

Once my background was complete it was time for assembly. I die cut an additional peony layer from scraps to glue to my colored image for added dimension and next cut a Hello sentiment from the new Timeless Sentiments die set in a dark brushed gold card stock. I again, cut additional sentiments from scraps to add dimension and glued everything to my background. My card was complete and I am proud of the design. The yellows just pop.

Thanks for reading!