AECP Academy 2 Final Project – Altered Object

This is a part-two post for my Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP) Academy 2 final project. For this assignment I was tasked with making four masculine cards along with making either an upcycled project or an altered item. This post will focus on the process I followed for making my altered item, a photo journal.

The course techniques I leveraged to create my altered item include:

• Beautiful Details – I took a great deal of inspiration from this course enhancing all of my stenciling with colored pencil.
• Easy Ink Blending Techniques – This course provided great lessons for creating unique ink-blended backgrounds with texture.
• Let it Shine – I used glitter pen throughout to add a little shimmer to my design.

For this assignment, I knew I wanted to enhance an item I would be able to use after the course assignment was complete. After looking around my craft room I settled on a SN@P! Flipbook from Simple Stories I received in a craft kit that I had never used. I decided I would change the flipbook to something I would be proud to put photos in.

To start, I disassembled my flipbook by removing the the metal binder and separating the front and back covers as shown below.

Next I took two 12″ x 12″ sheets of white scrapbook paper and scored the paper using my scoreboard at 1.75″ per side. After folding the paper along the score lines, I took scissors and cut out each corner just outside the scorelines to create flaps for my journal covers. See images below.

Once I completed my outer covers, I used a hole punch to recut holes in the front and back covers and I then reassembled the album. Next, I cut two pieces of pattern paper I found in my stash each into rectangles measuring 7.5″ x 8.5″ to add visual interest to the inside flaps, before working on my outside design.

For my outer design, I knew I wanted to feature items from the Craft Your Life Project Kit, Marigold Butterflies, which has so many beautiful elements to choose from.

To start, I stamped the main marigold image from the stamp set onto white cardstock twice. Then using 3 shades of orange ink from my stash, I used the accompanying layering stencil set to stencil the petals, followed by the leaves using two shades of green. Once complete, I knew I wanted to enhance the shadows of my stenciling using colored pencils. For the flowers, I selected two shades of orange, an ivory, and a lavender to use for my shading. Posted below is an image of the plain stenciled flowers next to pencil-enhanced flowers to show what a difference a little pencil can make.

Pro Tip: When creating shadows with yellows and orange hues, always considering using a lavender shade versus just going with a darker color. Lavender is a complimentary color that will help to create realistic shadows in your coloring, This is true with any medium such as paints, pencils, or alcohol markers.

Upon completing my two sets of floral images, I took one of the images and fussy cut out two of the flowers to use with the other marigold image. This decision was made to not only to help fill out the cover page, but to also enable me to add a little dimension with the flowers in my completed design.

Next I got to work die cutting some filler leaves out of green cardstock using my favorite Itty Bitty Branches Die Set. Once I had made my die cuts, I realized I needed some sparkle, so I colored each of the leaves with a gold shimmer pen to add interest. This was a technique I continued with all of my remaining die cuts, which included both the letter “L” cut from the Mega Alphabet Dies and the butterfly die that came with the Craft Your Life Project Kit.

Why the letter L? Well that is the first initial of my daughter’s name and this album will eventually be filled with fun memories of her.

Before assembling all of my components, I knew I wanted to do a little ink-blending for the background. I started with a soft base of green around the bottom and left sides of my cover panel. Next, I took a polka dot stencil and added some soft touches in the same shade of green to add a little texture. To finish, I grabbed my Metallic Watercolor Pan Set and, using the Jade color, added spatter along the ink blended edges with a paintbrush. Now it was time for final assembly.

I laid out my design, deciding where I wanted to place my elements, and then gluing the lower layers first to the background. Using foam tape I decided to pop up the main floral image and the butterfly. When it came to the greenery, I took the side of a pencil and curled the leaves both upwards and downwards to create more movement and for the downward curling leaves, I used little foam squares on the undersides to keep them popped up.

Now that my pretty album is complete, it is time to go fill it with pictures of my girl.

Thank you for following along with me on my AECP journey!